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LIFE SKETCHES. 



PRESS OF J. J. BOWLES 

170 ATLANTIC AVE. 

BROOKLYN 



LIFE SKETCHES 

OR 

Pleasant Reminiscences 

OF A BUSY CAREER SPENT AMONG ALL CLASSES 

AND CONDITIONS OF PEOPLE IN THE 

UNITED STATES AND CANADA. 



By Archibald Ross, 

Author of " Duty and other Poems," etc. 



THE RAEBURN book CO., 

NEW YORK. 

1904. 



^■^'Jl^^^ 



LIBRARY of CONQR&SS 
Two C«pie» Reeeived 

IkH 12 1904 

\ Copyright Entry 
Class e^ XXc. No. 
' COPY 3 



TO MY MUCH ESTEEMED FRIEND, 

JOHN D. ROSS, LL.D., 

A STOUT LOVER OF FREEDOM, 

A DEAR FRIEND OF THE MUSES, 

AND AN INTREPID WORKER IN THE UPWARD MARCH OF 

HUMANITY, 

THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

BY THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 

This series of sketches appeared a few years 
since in the Newtown, L. L, Register, and at the re- 
quest of many friends is now printed, with a few 
changes, in a separate volume. It reveals some note- 
worthy incidents in the path of my experience on 
health, adventure, athletics, character and morals — in 
fact is largely a picture of my own life — one quite in- 
formal, and sufficiently off-hand to give Nature health- 
ful room without wounding her with malicious indiffer- 
ence. The reader will see that in many places I lay 
special stress upon the curative properties of cold, 
pure, dry air ; and I am obliged to do so because most 
people forget the worth of this grandest of all tonics. 
And another thing the reader may see — I never failed 
to keep up my confidence in human nature. A man 
can never realize the full worth of life till he does this. 
As a spectator on this beautiful little planet, one 
arriving at my age has the prerogative of knowing 
something, and should not be afraid to speak it. The 
shackles of creed or dogm.a have no place in my mental 
furniture. 

After all, the love of life is the real genius that 
prompts this volume — that healthful sense of freedom, 
not born of the richly freighted parlor, but of the pure 
sky and the green fields. To feel the glow and the 



6 PREFACE 

charm of being, and live up to the higher adaptations 
that arise from it, I take to be our noblest definition 
of the sum of human existence. Metaphysics, philoso- 
phy, biology — all offer their varied domain for our 
observation, as well as the practical and material. Life 
— so full of the poetry of common things — places us 
ever forward on our vantage ground, where we need 
not fail to do some good service for the great human 
family. 

Brooklyn, N. Y., December, 1903. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I.— Early Days, - - - 9 

CHAPTER II.— Pressing Ahead, - - 18 

CHAPTER III.— Nature Humoring her Children, 27 

CHAPTER IV.— Actors in the Forum, - - 37 

CHAPTER v.— Epigrammatical, - - 48 

CHAPTER VI.— Pertinacious and Practical, - 59 

CHAPTER VII.— A Race for Life, with some 

hints for amateur lecturers, - 72 

CHAPTER VIII.— Criticism and Common Sense, - 98 

CHAPTER IX.— Health and Exercise, - 109 

CHAPTER X.— Philosophical, - - 125 

CHAPTER XI.—" A Man's a Man for a' That," 136 

CHAPTER XII.— Hours with the Scotch Folk, - 155 

CHAPTER XIII.— The Marriage Bureau, - 165 

CHAPTER XIV.— Some Thoughts on the Devil, 177 

CHAPTER XV.— The Labor Question, - - 189 

CHAPTER XVI.— Beauty of Character, - 201 

CHAPTER XVII.— The Religion of Humanity, - 211 

For General Index see pages 237-247. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY DAYS. 

I HAD one temptation in starting out in these chapters 
— and that was to give a somewhat close sketch of the 
social and more circumstantial hemisphere of my nature. 
As this is the ground where dramatists and novelists 
cast their nets, and lay siege to the whole octave of pas- 
sion to furnish the material, I question whether it would 
be right in my own case ; for merely coming before the 
public as a casual visitor, who shall soon drop out of 
sight, wiser reflection convinced me that it were better 
to hold my peace, or to unfold some of those essentials 
which underlie the events of our daily life, and which, 
too often, from the want of insight, we let sleep in ob- 
scurity. 

For that circumstantial hemisphere I speak of has 
less to do with the making of a thorough man than that 
other half where nature, in study, in meditation, and in 
experience, fertilizes the mind for its great world work. 
For it would be unjust and cruel to maintain that Nature 
places us here at a disadvantage. Watch carefully the 
lives of certain persons, and the rationale of their daily 
habitudes is beautiful — their actions bespeak such at- 
tention as if some one were addressing them, as if they 



lo LIFE SKETCHES 

were listening, and so act accordingly. There is no 
enigma here ; yet the vices of our age are endeavoring 
to shut our ears to this divine truth. 

Just as I am writing this series of chapters, let me say 
here that, from the pressure of certain events passing 
around me, I shall follow no chronological arrangement. 
It is not always convenient to be turning over old leaves 
in the life-book. No matter how much a man may learn 
of the theory or history of a thing, he knows nothing of 
it practically till he has passed through it, and in some 
sense made it his own. Then he has right to give utter- 
ance. At the same time it is a pity that the most of 
those who have travelled over the rough road of ex- 
perience and observation grow tired, or indolent, or 
thoughtless about the multitude who are stepping out 
over the same road, and striving to pick their way. 
Selfishness is a very filthy little rascal that hangs on the 
skirts of even great men. 

I was born at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, 
in 1835, of rugged Scotch Highland stock. My mother 
was a MacGregor, and bore the signet of authority. 
Two of her great granduncles fell in battle, one at 
Prestonpans, Scotland, and one with Wolfe at Quebec. 
In my third year my father pitched his residence in 
Upper Canada, in the small and but recently opened 
village of Perth. Laid out and garrisoned by officers 
and soldiers of the British army, it possessed a some- 



EARIvY DAYS ii 

what military air, and was credited with certain quali- 
fications which fitted it for the residence of respectable 
politicians. The respectable politician of that day was 
not unlike that of our own in his proclivities to claret 
and port, which seemed no disadvantage. It was pretty 
hard, slow work for the temperance reformers when 
at length they made a break in the fortress of the 
enemy. They had nothing of the machinery of the 
present system, and were the subject of comedy and 
burlesque for many a year. 

This village, graced by the presence of three churches, 
had nothing to boast of in its moral characteristics. 
The two lawj^ers, young, robust and natty, were noted 
for their nice mannerisms with the upper ten ; while the 
school teachers were adepts in the art of flogging — one 
of the pedagogues, whose taste was marked by the 
presence of a green waistcoat summer and winter, and 
some expressive dilettantism with the ladies, had an 
eye knocked out in a scuffle, and his pride forbade him 
ever after to be seen. Another had the fortune or mis- 
fortune to have a wooden leg, which, just at the time 
when Hood's lines were running in every head, exposed 
him, though a good teacher, to much obloquy, that he 
also shortly disappeared and left the country. 

Nature framed me in a peculiar mold. Frail and 
delicate in my early years, the first acquisition I in- 
herited from my foster-mother was the art of asking 



12 IvIFE SKETCHES 

questions, and it sometimes cost me a high price. 
In my sixth year a distinguished personage entered 
my father's house. He was the Christian teacher in 
that locality. One day I asked him "Are you a man of 
God? " He smiled and patted me on the head. Another 
day as I sat near him, and a bottle of odorous Glenlivet 
fell to the floor, I said "Do you love brandy?" That was 
one of the most exjDensive questions I ever asked. 

I remember a son of Vulcan who had long lived near, 
having one leg, one good eye, and four fingers on his left 
hand. A heart full of merriment, brimming over with 
military songs, which he picked up in her Majesty's 
service, joined with a touch of the St. Vitus' dance, ex- 
posed him as a subject to common buffoonery. One 
morning, while at service and in the midst of the minis- 
ter's prayer, the blacksmith, troubled with his distemper, 
and a drop too much of spirits, walked out in the aisle, 
and with bobbing, dancing, singing, and shouting "God 
save the Queen," put the whole church in such laughter 
that the parson stopped, and had the man violently 
ejected. 

Health is such an equivalent in a man's whole life, 
that I dare not in this chapter pass by the subject un- 
noticed. Fresh as yesterday comes up the recollection 
of a last resource adopted to save my life in my fifth 
year. Just as I was being tenderly lifted into the bath, 
I overheard my playmates speak of my near funeral. 



-EARLY DAYS 13 

and the dresses they should wear. The whole of them 
have passed before. 

The greatest monster that I ever met inhuman society 
in mv childhood was the phlebotomist. Whether it was 
to drain all the MacGregor blood out , and to get new 
blood in, or whether some incarnate fiend threw a spell 
over the family, I never could gauge to my satisfaction. 
But the way that I was hacked and cut to please the 
blood vampire, my scars to-day testify. The question 
that I mused in my heart was just this — How may I 
get blood ? My appetite failed; my sleep failed. Fever, 
asthma and cough clung to me like old friends. Slow 
in learning the secret of reserved energy. I was bound 
when once I foimd it not to forget it. From parent. 
schoolmaster, minister or doctor, I could get no satis- 
faction. I felt that I must follow my intuitions — the 
whisperings of the Infinite in the soul — ^they were my 
law, and I must obey them. Let caste bind me with its 
iron cords if it dare. I should have to snap them or cde. 

"When man learns the secret of perfect breathing in 
cold, clear air, he learns the secret of perfect health. 
God has given us two oceans in which to wash our- 
selves — the cold, clear water to cleanse our bodies, and 
the bracing, penetrating atmosphere to cleanse our 
blood. The hundreds of millions of air cells in the 
lungs have been neglected and misused. Man is afraid 
to breathe : the cells consequently become clogged and 



14 lylFE SKETCHES 

choked with foreign matter. This in a nutshell explains 
how in badly ventilated rooms men fall a prey to diseases 
that accelerate death. They have not the sagacity on 
leaving unhealthy abodes to breathe deeply of the pure 
air, and wash out the foulness from the cells. Deep 
breathing in clear air, exercise and sleep are the criteria 
of longevity, and the happiest of the human family — 
irrespective of the money question altogether — find here 
their stronghold and safety. Let me illustrate how I 
found out the secret of living. 

I had been sick, dear knows how long — it was spring, 
raw cold weather; snow in patches lay on the ground. 
I had not been out for months. But it was election 
time— some one was rushing for parliament, and the 
festive music shook all the walls, and penetrated my 
ears. No Argus was there to eye me, and I soon left the 
house, thinly clad, two hundred rods behind. There I 
ravished my whole frame with a dual exitement — the 
grand music, — but the pure, clear cold air! God, wasn't 
it delicious ! O how thirsty I was ! I recall it all now. 
Those deep inspirations, how long, how delightful! 
About twenty minutes after I was found and well pom- 
meled for such coquetting with nature. 

In one cold winter day of my twelfth year, when 
some religious controversy was going on between my 
father and the village clergyman, I wrapped myself up 
warmly and used some evasion to steal outside. I started 



EARLY DAYS 15 

I know not whither. It was of little consequence; I 
could breathe. After walking about three miles I 
thought of returning, but the bracing air cheered me, 
and I advanced. How I walked and ran, and bounded 
that day ! Cold water to a thirsty soul is indeed sweet ; 
but the cold air — how I would stretch my body, throw 
forward my chest, and swing my arms. I kept up the 
deep inspirations as long as nature would allow. I 
grudged to expel the air, and made very long, and deep 
draughts. All day long I lived in this delirium. Over 
hills and frozen streams, through dense woods, drinking, 
drinking for life. I counted the seconds. I wondered 
after all whether this was real healthy enjoyment, or 
the precursor of death. 

The day grew intensely cold, but the colder the air, 
the greater the exhilaration. I questioned whether there 
was any nectar in the wide world that could equal the 
pure crisp oxygen of the dry Canada air. When I ar- 
rived home at nightfall all wondered at the change. It 
was my first comprehension of the reserved energy that 
God had placed somewhere in my constitution, and not 
in mine only, but in the physical systems of all who care 
to look for it. What a mine of wealth ! But I might 
as weU speak at that time to a log of wood as to any one 
but a solitary few on such a blessing, without being re- 
minded that the consequences would soon be of such a 
terrible nature as to teach me otherwise. My judgment 



i6 LIFE SKETCHES 

has grown with my experience and my years; and I be- 
lieve that thousands annually drop into their graves, 
whose incapacity or carelessness or fastidiousness will 
not allow them to trace this storehouse of their being. 

At a very early age I was led to look into the com- 
pensations of nature. A n extraordinary memory formed 
part of my mental apparatus. Lyman Beecher's Lec- 
tures on Intemperance fell into my hands. A first 
reading placed an accurate transcript of every word in 
my mind — and with the greatest ease I delivered the 
oration to crowded houses. I was very much annoyed 
one day to find that a second reading was necessary for 
a new lecture ; and on another occasion a third reading. 
It was lucky for my health that it was so ; for I was 
petted and spoiled just to the verge of ruin. I thank 
my stars to-day that, considering my surroundings, my 
memory lost its mechanical brilliancy. 

I studied Latin from my eleventh to my thirteenth 
year, and with the assistance of the Bible, Paradise 
Lost and Chalmers' Astronomical Discourses, laid hold 
of a key which opened the door to many a precious 
avenue of language. Then my father's fortunes flew to 
the winds, and our home was broken up. Apprenticed 
to a printer in Montreal, Canada, my quiet, silent tem- 
perament kept me printer's devil for a long time ; but 
young and feeble as I was, I kept asking questions. And 
they were questions no man could answer. But I didn't 



EARLY DAYS 17 

know why. Thus I learned to look within, and though 
this introspection isolated me from my companions, the 
years convince me that any other step would have 
proved suicidal. The being who nobly resolves to fill 
his place in the realm of existence will find that an inner 
as well as an outer voice calls him to action. To heed 
the former alone will make him a useless enthusiast ; to 
solely heed the latter will make him a cramped, frozen 
materialist. I have been looking at the rocks ahead, 
and am very thankful that I have escaped this Charybdis 
without an accident. 

All speculation's tact 

Proves man is but at school, 
And cannot solve essential fact 

More than a babe or fool. 

Essence will not be known. 

Man stands but at the door. 
Just as he stood, a child ungrown, 

A child, but little more. 

Though he fly to the sun, 

Or compass Virgo's range, 
His knowledge then is but begun 

In Nature's wheel of change. 

Laws borne of Mind have place 

In Nature's wide domain. 
But human prescience ne'er can trace 

The mysteries they contain. 

Eelation j-et is seen. 

Or felt where not perceived. 
Life forms the centre of a Mean, 

eternally conceived. 



CHAPTER II. 

PRESSING AHEAD. 

As this world is a school, and we are students, every 
one of us, it is but natural that young inexperienced 
minds should interrogate the older and more experienced 
ones regarding the difficulties on the way. We are ever 
learning from impressions and experiences — and our 
teachers are not always members of the human family. 
O no. The whole round of Nature is made in some way 
to subserve this end. But how far we are and are not 
the children of experience, is the great enigma of philos- 
ophy. Here the varied schools are forever quarreling. 
Is there anything or any series of things prior to or 
superior to our ordinary sense knowledge that makes 
even experience itself possible? The whole history of 
philosophy tells us that man was made for development 
from the very make-up of his spiritual nature. We must 
not despair. Civilization is looking for a new school 
where apriority will be thoroughly tested as a great 
factor in the phenomena of mind. We must not be afraid 
to branch out for the fullest birthright of our being. 
Materialism laughs us to scorn, and many of our churches 
and academies are bridled to suit this tendency. 

I have a very distinct recollection of a gentleman 



PRESSING AHEAD 19 

placing in my hands, when about ten years old, Locke's 
Essay on the Human Understanding. As I had carried 
along with me for years a strong dislike for Locke, I 
often wondered where I acquired it. About twenty-six 
years ago I sat down to a careful perusal of his essay, 
when strange feelings came over me that I had read the 
work away back in my childhood. I cannot recall the 
time ; but somewhere around my tenth or eleventh year 
I met a heartrending disaster. While playing with some 
children in the attic of my father's barn, some one out- 
side, in throwing a load of hay near us, forced the tine 
of a pitchfork into my left nostril, throwing me against 
the wall. My screams aroused the neighborhood ; and 
all I remembered for some time was the sea of blood 
around me. Long months of sickness resulted. And 
when health came I found that for many a day sweet 
memory had fled. 

Locke undoubtedly was one of my early teachers, and 
the impression I so early formed I have only somewhat 
modified. He was instructive as far as he went, but he 
did not go far enough. Sensation and reflection are not 
the sole doors to our knowledge. 

I made my debut in New York in 1852. My anxiety was 
to meet men — but my experiences for some time were 
not cheerful. I soon found work at Smith & MacDougall, 
Beekman Street, and there finished my apprenticeship. 
There I met my old chum, Robert Waters. Of my life- 



20 LIFE SKETCHES 

long friend I will speak again. Here also I met and 
worked with John Swinton at the compositing. As he 
was the theme of much controversy in labor circles in 
after years, let me say that young Swinton was very 
active and wiry, an intense reader, an apt speaker, of 
much enthusiasm, with eccentricities that kept com- 
pany with him all life long. One early statement of his 
I well remember : ' 'Could I but cross the ocean and shake 
hands with the great Thomas Carlyle, I should die 
happy." 

In connection with my reading I would use much spare 
time in striving to get a glimpse of the faces of great 
thinkers — men with eagle eyes that I might peer into 
Avithout flinching. I was not long in finding such a man 
in Horace Greeley. My perambulations in the vicinity of 
his den were frequent. What titillations of delight seized 
me when he appeared on the sidewalk ! One day bracing 
up, I wrote a paragraph, and submitted it to the phil- 
osopher. But my clumsiness barely saved me. While he 
was reading the paper, I as usual asked him a question or 
two. "Here, here, " said he, "stop your questions; at- 
tend to business, stick to your writing, condense your 
ideas, simplify your language, and the world will soon 
know it." 

In my eighteenth year. Professor Robison's Intro- 
duction to Lord Bacon's Inductive Philosophy gave me a 
great thirst to know more about the grand thinker- 



PRESSING AHEAD 21 

Robison himself may be classed as a teacher — his rich, 
full flowing diction spurred me on. As a clear, persuasive 
and masterly digest his work cannot be surpassed. A 
very able condensation of it appeared in the third and 
seventh editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica, to which 
I refer the reader. 

From the year 1854 to 1858 I devoted much of my 
spare time to reading the poets. Leaving Milton out of 
the category, as he was an older friend, I started with 
Pope, and very naturally drifted to his master, Dry den. 
Over those two charmed writers I spent hours at a time. 
Ease, grace, euphony are the characteristics of Pope ; 
dignity, majesty, strength are the characteristics of 
Dryden. They live the paragons of rhyme — Dry den the 
greater wonder indeed, from the fact that with all his 
rapidity of execution, no one has been found to equal 
him in the art of grasping the right word, and moulding 
it with astonishing swiftness. I loved Cowper for the 
tenderness and simplicity of his style ; Akenside for the 
sublimity of many of his periods; Thomson for good 
flashes of genius, and the closing hymn, which is indeed 
a coronal of beauty. Wordsworth I read for his Intima- 
tions of Immortality ; Coleridge for his peerings into the 
infinite; Longfellow as the grandest heart-poet of the 
American continent, and in some respects of the whole 
world ; Bryant, not for his cold Thanatopsis, but for his 
pleasant walks with Nature, talking with God's lesser 



22 LIFE SKETCHES 

creation, scattered around his feet — and a thousand 
others I cannot mention now. The poets are a high 
priesthood, and give Hfe that equipoise which dignifies 
humanity, and forever reminds us of the relation which 
binds us to our Original. 

Some years after this I took up the study of practical 
astronomy, and thus found that life was full of com- 
pensations. It would be useless for me to go over this 
ground, where I received so much satisfaction. But I 
would say for the benefit of my younger readers that no 
earthly study can furnish healthier material for the 
mind in the sore warfare of life. You should accustom 
yourselves to pleasant walks in the country far from the 
glare of our city lights to see the skies in their splendor, 
and trace out the links which bind the present so 
strangely with the past ; where you are sure of acquiring 
some knowledge of universal truths if you but rightly 
look for them. 

An omnivorous reader, I fell early into the habit of 
striking out for those arenas in literature where criticism 
holds a solid ground. And this is altogether a question 
of taste with readers. Jeffrey, the Edinburgh reviewer, 
deserves credit for the power and energy he exhibited in 
this line — far superior in many respects to Sidney Smith, 
whose caricature at times degraded his writing. Carlyle 
possessed, and will possess for many generations to come, 
grand distinctiveness and safety as a leader. I make no 



PRESSING AHEAD 23 

scruple whatever in saying that I have been much in- 
debted to him. Carlyle shows the world that he is 
earnest, that he hates shams, that he is after the real 
and the essential, if it can at all be found. A man so 
eager will not be censured for his mannerism of style. 
We rise from his writings satisfied, because we feel that 
he has spoken what he knows. He pains occasionally, 
but his lancet is visible — he does not hide it under the 
veil of dissimulation that it may sting in secret, like the 
Satanic school. Any man who reads Carlyle for strength, 
information and good sense will find it ; and I gladly 
recommend him to my readers as one of the foremost of 
our modern names. I merely make allusion to Emerson 
at this time from the friendship that sprang up between 
these two men. There are pages of this illustrious 
writer that glow with a richness of illustration and wealth 
of genius that history has never surpassed. 

Having but touched the border ground of my training 
school, there are some querying as to my belief in a 
higher school than any of these. There is a great deal 
of moral weakness exhibited here amongst men. I find 
very little of that conspicuous fervid action of Paul which 
might be looked for as a necessary resultant in natures 
like his own. For myself I love liberty; I love the spirit 
and genius of the essence of Christianity; I embrace the 
Divine incarnation — the doctrine of a Trinity ; I believe 
this life is a probation ; that one of the most precious of 



24 IvIFE SKETCHES 

its teachings is a spiritual resurrection ; I believe in re- 
wards and punishments. But in the doctrine of a free 
and unfettered Divine love for all who will be saved I 
most certainly believe — where the Almighty in the 
plenitude of His grace calls to every son and daughter 
of Adam, "Here is the light, walk in it; I have given 
you free will, use it." But we know that some prefer 
the darkness. Milton's conception of the sufferings of 
the damned, stripped off the false images which, from 
the nature of the case, he was obliged to use, seems in 
consonance with the government of a just and free 
sovereign. Many love evil; it is their heaven; and the 
Creator permits it to be so. We must leave the mystery 
with Himself. 

When I first arrived at New York in 1852 I found a 
boardinghouse, kept by a Mrs. Eyan, at 37 Pearl street, 
near the Battery, long since pulled down for a more ex- 
tensive structure. Many an evening I strolled over into 
the park, and endeavored to drive away the melancholy 
that preyed upon me. I missed my mother's face, and 
found that in spite of all my efforts, I became singularly 
unhappy. While ruminating over my condition one 
evening I was sure that I heard some one singing: I 
listened — the voice was that of a woman — O how clear, 
how thrilling, how natural ! I moved in the direction of 
the sound, and found that it proceeded from Castle 



PRESSING AHEAD 25 

Garden. My melancholy disappeared, and I was deter- 
mined, if possible, to see this great singer. 

The next evening I walked around to the entrance. I 
had no money to spare, tickets were expensive, and I 
spoke to a driver, explaining my dilemma and my desire ; 
he was an Englishman, and seemed to be superintendent 
over a race of Jehus. I knew not what the result might 
be ; the crowd kept pressing, but I kept near the cockney. 
Carriage followed carriage. "'Ere she comes! Gents, 
make way!" suddenly cried the man. At this I saw a 
lady grasping a gentleman's hand, and alighting. Her 
face was calm, and indeed beautiful. It spoke of peace 
at any rate to me. The crowd jostled me along, but I 
was satisfied that I had seen Jenny Lind, but, better still, 
that I had heard her, and that long night I waited out- 
side and drank in the sweetness of her notes. 

I went over to my boarding-house with pleasing reflec- 
tions ; but I found on entering my room a strange man 
in my bed — ^the light was burning. Nothing daunted, I 
fell on my knees to offer my daily thanks to God, and 
when I arose the man asked me what I was doing. ' ' I 
was praying to God — do you pray?" "O I wish I could 
pray," and he sobbed the words aloud as if his heart 
would break. "I had a good mother," and he sobbed 
again. I changed the topic for a moment; and found 
that he was a laborer; he had been hard at work in the 
hot sun that very day, and seemed to be worn out next 



26 LIFE SKETCHES 

to death's door. So I endeavored to cheer him, when he 
asked me, "Will you teach me to pray?" I immediately 
rose, and knelt at the bedside. reader, be thou a 
politician, or merchant, or what not, it will not do to sneer 
at testimonies of this kind. Never be ashamed of thy 
Creator and His great love. In trembling accents I used 
the opening part of the Lord's prayer. He followed me, 
repeating, but in great pain, the words "Our Father who 
art in heaven" — he could get no further; he was de- 
termined to know this at any rate ; and we lay down to 
rest. I was awakened at intervals by the sounds "Our 
Father who art in heaven." This was the last refrain I 
heard from my companion. On awakening in the morn- 
ing he was missing, and on my return home at night I 
inquired what became of him. "0, Mr. Ross," said the 
lady, "be is dead." "Did he leave any message? What 
were his last words?"" Our Father who art in heav" — 
"He's all right," said I; "he wrestled with God like 
Jacob, and he found the blessing." 



CHAPTER III. 

NATURE HUMORING HER CHILDREN. 

It is very much to be regretted that this aspect of the 
great Hfe struggle is so little touched by journalists. 
The very element that Providence throws in our way as 
a spice and condiment to tide us through disaster and 
difficulty is often looked upon in later years as a sort of 
moral incubus that we must get rid of at any rate. We 
have not sufficient confidence in Nature, and turn our 
back upon her in a very unfriendly way. 

Humor is the very salt of life. We all have a great 
deal of it in our constitutions. But we very seldom think 
that this faculty has much to do in prolonging our years. 
That it has tended to this point to a large extent in my 
own life, is one reason I allude to it here. Solomon said 
''There is a time to laugh." He was no fool when he 
said it ; though some of the Sunday school lesson lecturers 
think they know more than he did. A laugh is a very 
pleasant sauce at the life feast table. 

The lower animals exhibit this propensity to humor to 
a wonderful extent. I was once visiting a friend, when 
my attention was called to an eighteen months old child 



28 LIFE SKETCHES 

on the floor, throwing out his arms, and crowing lustily 
at the antics of a cat, that jumped over the baby's head, 
gamboled playfully, then jumped back again — keeping 
this up four or five times. This undoubtedly was great 
amusement to pussy as well as the child. We can see it 
all throughout nature. It is the compensatory law of 
special providences, showing that every line of being has 
its share of advantages to charm the sense, so that things 
may meet their proper fitness. 

Things for a time looked pretty blue in those far away 
days when I first entered the printing office. The fore- 
man was a strange nondescript. People shunned him 
like a plague. Soaked in whiskey, he threw out from 
his person to a compass of ten feet a malaria which 
seemed to embrace raw onions, garlic, assafoetida, toads- 
tools, limburger, forty -rod, and stale pigs' wash ; and 
was therefore pretty sure to hold the fort on his own 
terms. 

Tom was a terror. On one occasion he asked one of 
the boys to return to office after supper ; but as the fire- 
men were out that night in procession, Scott thought it 
best to view the parade, then went to bed and dreamt of 
Squiggs. The apprentice was in for it next morning. 
Squiggs at first sight rushed for him, yanked him by his 
collar with two hands, lifted him up — it was his method 
— and shook him so terribly that his boots flew across the 
floor. Then he brushed off the blue bottles that settled 



NATURE HUMORING HER CHILDREN 29 

on his own pate, absquatulated for an hour and came 
back sodden. 

We did'nt laugh, not we; we thought of retaliation, 
and at length settled on mud pies. As Tom had a wide 
distance on the streets, and the butterflies of fashion 
constantly hinted of a nefarious odor in his whereabouts, 
we sought ambuscade, and for some evenings made it 
hot for Tom. But when winter came with its long array 
of snow storms, he had it sure and heavy. How the 
snowballs would rattle around Tom's head ! But he 
always sought relief in the flowing bowl, and fortunately 
never challenged us on this score. 

I had been away for some years, and on my return 
found that Tom still held the fort. He was the Nemesis 
of the place. From editor down to messenger boy all 
kept a safe distance, hoped and longed for his retire- 
ment, but no one dared approach him to speak of it. 
But Tom yielded at last ; the news flew like wildfire that 
Tom was dead. Having no desire to attend the funeral, 
I asked some of the hands for information. ''D'ye 
moind? " said Donohue, "am I a fool? " On questioning 
another, "B'gob, I would take arsenic first." "Mr. 
Flynn, were you at the funeral of Mr. Squiggs? " " Was 
I? —do you think I'm as full as a herring? — nix; " and he 
hurried away. As a last resource I asked Mike, who was 
once a boon companion with him. " Well, I own up I 
was a pal of Tom's ; but I sorter hated his pot drinks ; 



30 LIFE SKETCHES 

why, Tom would drink out of a spittoon, and I let him 
go. No, I can't go near him." And that was all I could 
ever find out about the exit of Tom Squiggs. 

What fools we readers should be not to see in this 
strange episode the law of compensation. The foreman 
was useless and unfortunate, but Nature gave him en- 
joyment even at the expense of his character. On our 
side we were destined to occupations where quietude and 
seriousness, in the midst of the most unhealthy air, would 
expose us to frightful diseases; but compensatory ad- 
vantages sprang up in the oddity of our surroundings, 
and gave us laughter and gayety for companionship in 
the most critical period of our lives. 

I have no sympathy, therefore, with those minds who 
will teach differently. Nature is ever telling us, "I have 
given you faculties for amusement, and no matter what 
the proclivities of custom or even religion may say, I 
know my duty ; my aptitudes will bear you through life 
cheerfully." While we try to crush this tendency of 
Nature, we do injury to the moral fabric of society, and 
throw insult in the face of the Divine Being. 

Very distinctly do I remember of using a word out of 
place to study its effects. I ahvays hated swearing; 
but I was constantly frightened and abused by rough 
swearing boys, whose bluster, I used to think, made 
them appear like giants. One day I resolved to try an 
experiment, and thus turn the tables on them. The 



NATURE HUMORING HER CHILDREN 31 

turning point was on the word " hell," so thoughtlessly 
bandied about by feeble minds. It was not long till one 
of my bold antagonists rushed upon me, when I immed- 
iately caught him by the coat coUar, shook him and 
asked him very boldly in his own phraseology, what he 
meant by thus annoying me. The poor fellow burst into 
tears, slipped away and ran as if there were a thousand 
dogs after him. Now, people may say what they please 
regarding this experiment, and though I felt very sheep- 
ishly about it for fully a year after, two or three decades 
have convinced me that this early argumentum ad 
hominem opened out a hundred voliunes regarding the 
grandeur of moral character, and the cowardliness and 
imbecility of all manner of vice. 

Having once had to face a contingency, where the ab- 
surd, the laughable and the ludicrous threw their veil 
around me, it will not be inappropriate to mention it as 
bearing on the subject in hand. Shy and reserved in 
my nineteenth year — and many years after — I kept silent 
in society, and could barely muster courage to speak to 
a lady. While passing one day Fulton street, near 
Broadway, where Horace Greeley and Bayard Taylor 
stood in conversation, a lady, jostled by the crowd, fell 
in mid-street, and a conveyance was passing over her when 
I with others rushed to her rescue. Thanking us for our 
efforts, I hurried on, and thought no more of the matter. 

Accustomed to cross the Hamilton ferry at that time, 
on several occasions I noticed that I was watched by a 



32 LIFE SKETCHES 

strange looking fat, fiery-faced lady, who at length egged 
on her attentions so far as to enter into conversation 
when leaving the boat, walked beside me, and asked me 
questions that made me blush to the roots of my hair. 
Having too much of this sort of thing, (it kept on for 
weeks, and caused not a little tittering around us) I 
changed boats, but the dowager found me out, and, as I 
could not dodge her, in as genial a manner as I could 
collect I awkwardly asked if I could be of any service to 
her. As this was just w^hat mine ogre wanted, I found, 
to speak plainly, I had put my foot in it. "Why," said 
she, "don't you remember of saving my life in Fulton 
street, my dear man?" It was too much — come what 
might, I was determined to get rid of her. 

First, I thought of throwing up my position, and leav- 
ing the city, and was quandarying over the matter, when 
on Sunday following, while standing with some young 
men near the boarding-house, one cried out, ' ' There is 
Miss Carbuncle," — a name she received, from a wen on 
her nose. There sure enough she was — advancing toward 
us. I cautiously moved onward, appearing indifferent, 
though I was mightily agitated. On looking back, there 
was only about fifteen feet between us — she was running, 
and the boys were roaring. I tried to run, but I could 
not ; some sickening fascination staggered me, while she 
— weighing at least two hundred and thirty pounds, and 
I suppose fully forty-five years old — was in a passion, 



NATURE HUMORING HER CHILDREN 33 

and I expected something like a whacking — I didn't 
know what. But as luck would have it, when about four 
feet from me, she threw her big arms too far forward to 
seize me, and fell over a switch of pine, and I escaped. 

Now, this seems ridiculous, doesn't it? but is there any 
compensation in it? If so, I have no right to reject it in 
this series of sketches. And should the reader think my 
ministerial capacity forbids that I should recall it, let 
him remember that events of this kind deserve registra- 
tion, in that they often prove blessings in disguise. 

There is a true as well as a comic side to all this. I look 
back upon it as a disagreeable incident carrying an agree- 
able compensation. Long hours of hard thinking before 
and after my daily labor soon reduced my physical 
health; my appetite failed, my sleep failed; when up 
rose this bold, impertinent Cassandra, who insisted — the 
minx — that I, a boy of nineteen years, had saved her life, 
that therefore I had a right to her hand, and she would 
see that nobody else should have it. 

Well, the result was just this, that I raced hither and 
thither till I got rid of her; my studies dropped, my 
exercise gave me a good appetite ; my sleep came to me 
as of old. So for all these remunerations I need not 
censure Providence for sending along the fussy dame. 

Quite apropos to these reflections may be cited the case 
of Alexander Somerville, a Scotch genius. He had been 
a soldier in the British army, but through Palmerston's 



34 LIFE SKETCHES 

influence secured a release. Settling in Montreal, his 
versatile and elastic pen charmed the people with a long 
series of readable articles. His letters were invariably 
signed "Alexander Somerville, Whistler at the Plough." 
This went all right for a while, when one Lanigan, a man 
of subtle, penetrating wit, forever running into the most 
charming antitheses, started a satirical sheet, and in a 
weekly series of articles, signed "Darius Y/intergreen, 
Fiddler at the Harrow," flooded the city with some of the 
keenest and raciest broadsides of the day. The articles 
caused roars of laughter all over the country, and tended 
not a little towards clearing the atmosphere of certain 
unhealthy foibles which infested the literature and habits 
of the people. 

There is a place in the world for satire and humor. 
While I should not go so far as to commend Swift and 
Eabelais for stepping aside from the boundary line that 
nature marked for the limits of their pasture ground, 
they are certainly deserving of credit for the cheerfulness 
and humor which have seeded in the heart of that influ- 
ential class who have read them. The wit of Rabelais 
conveys some of the finest morality, while the satire of 
Swift has taught us how — with a few blunt well studied 
words — we may do much useful work. But let us not 
forget that human nature takes its cast largely from our 
humor: the thoughtful may always read two or three 
tongues with theirinflections where the crowd reads one. 



NATURE HUMORING HBR CHILDREN 35 

This mysterious argosy, the human soul — how it does 
baffle the calculations of the most far-seeing schools ! It 
looks awkward and bungling, in this twentieth century, 
to be told that we know no more than our progenitors 
regarding the budding of genius in childhood. Why is 
it that the individual who has been so long looked upon 
as the dull, good for nothing loutish boy, turns out the 
marvel and hope of his race? What is the secret of his 
personality? He himself moving along in the soberest 
daily common-place — so kind were the dealings of nature 
in his defence, so bounteous her provision that he should 
not be stinted in anything necessary to a proper and full 
development. 

There is something intensely beautiful to the student 
of mental science in looking over such a picture. He sees 
something that the mighty crowd with all the imple- 
ments of knowledge at their finger ends, never witness. 
He sees the priest, the judge, the physician, and the par- 
ent looking with despair and unmingled pity upon the 
dull and apparently stupid boy. They cannot stir him ; 
and they are baffled in every endeavor to pierce the secret 
of his stronghold. In fact they deny that he has any. 
They cannot see the panoply that encases him ; and the 
fact remains that he is neglected and abused, and made 
the scapegoat for the sins of the neighborhood. And who 
knows but that the qualities of his mind are strikingly 
sharpened by this discipline? Some way or another he 



36 IvIFB SKETCHES 

bears through it all — the idea never arising within him 
that his foster-mother is feeding and training him, and 
that one day he shall leave the chrysalis and fly with 
new wings. 

Life is full of compensations, and when our teachers 
fully realize the grandeur of their mission, they will teach 
a great many things they do not understand now. When 
our eye is opened to behold something of the vastness and 
grandeur that Nature has in store for even the poorest of 
her children, the money question will hold its proper 
place, suicide will be on the wane, and man will not allow 
himself to become the prey of vices which have disfigured 
the face of society with a stigma a thousand times lower 
than the brute. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ACTORS IN THE FORUM. 

Before I proceed with some detailed account of my 
church and world experiences, it is fitting that I mention 
to-day a few personages who have given me some hours 
of instruction as well as enjoyment. Don't let us forget 
by all means that events are very spirited teachers in this 
school of life. 

When I was quite a boy, Francis Hincks, of Montreal, 
was rising rapidly into eminence, and in high circles was 
looked up to with much respect. As I often carried 
proof-sheets from the office to his own hands, I had some 
opportunity, young as I was, of noticing the care and ex- 
cellent taste he exhibited in his writings. And this was 
one secret of his after success. Long years before his 
knighthood he was well aware of his mental strength — a 
noble quality not to be deprecated by any means in a 
noble mind. There are many just as able and well in- 
formed as Sir Francis Hincks, but their timidity kills 
them. This impression doubtlessly swayed him through 
life in filHng out his ideal. He did the best he could, and 
where he erred he was all the better fitted to gauge the 
strength of his own mind. He passed through seas of 
the most bitter rancor unharmed; but who that has 



38 LIFE SKETCHES 

climbed the slippery political ladder can expect to escape 
scot free? As governor of Barbados he earned distinc- 
tion for some years before his death. 

Years ago there lived a man in Canada for whose name 
I bear a warm respect. A conservative in politics, he 
for once in his life became an out and out radical. In 
1849 Lord Elgin, under the advice of his ministers, for 
the sake of ensuring peace, pledged the payment of losses 
sustained in the French rebellion of 1837. The loyalists 
were intensely angry, burned the parliament house to the 
ground, and soon drove Lord Elgin out of the country. 

The editor of the Gazette, James Moir Ferres, was one 
of the loyalists. He had beeu a school teacher; and 
possessed a great deal of energy, coupled with a good 
share of versatility, and a spice of humor that made him 
a favorite with the people. But at times his pen was 
steeped in the most poignant irony. Many of his articles 
bore traces of the most elaborate preparation, and might 
be considered as models of eloquence. When I found any 
of his thoughts in harmony with my conception of beauty, 
I revolved them over and over in my sensorium till I could 
easily recall them. But these occasions were rare ; for 
the whirl of politics gave him little time to look for 
jewels. Of Ferres' subsequent life I learned little, but 
sufficient to know that he died poor, unrewarded for his 
zeal for his country. 

About the year 1868 I had many opportunities of meet- 
ing with the Hon. D'Arcy McGee, a gifted son of the 



ACTORS IN THE FORUM 39 

Grreen Isle. At that time he had been writing extensively 
for the Canadian press, especially the Montreal Gazette, 
and was rising rapidly in the affections of the Canadian 
people. This gentleman possessed some excellent traits, 
but he did not succeed well as a politician. When young 
and inexperienced in the lessons of patriotism he made 
vows that riper years urged him to cancel, at a time when 
he found himself hemmed in between files of men un- 
governable in passion, and studied in revenge. A man 
indeed of peculiar genius, where the beautiful and the 
repulsive had much in common, he manifested a gayety 
and innocence of heart which only those who well knew 
him could appreciate. He studied but little of the artifices 
of evasion, and in more peaceful times might have arisen 
to the highest honors in a noble, sincere and chaste soci- 
ety. At times singularly feeble, he allowed the bridle of 
indiscretion to rest on his lips, and would go, like Sen- 
nacherib, to his ruin: then he would re-resolve to be a 
man, and be worthy of the name. 

Those who say he was a born orator make a sad mis- 
take. His best orations were after drinking heavily. 
Nature never sanctions such work at the expense of her 
own purity. Yet here lay his terrible temptation. He 
long fostered the idea, that in giving up the wassail-bowl 
he would give up the spirit of eloquence. Yet he had 
great heroism ; he tried to master the frightful habit time 
and again, and at length succeeded. In the bosom of his 



40 LIFE SKETCHES 

family he spent many a pleasant hour with the muses, 
and gave birth to thoughts that will long live after him. 
His will at length grew resolute. He threw his affections 
on the side of national and civil order. Friends and 
affluence gathered around him. He used all his energies 
for the furtherance of reforms. But venom rankled in 
the breasts of his old confederates, and he fell by the 
assassin's hand one early morning while leaving the 
parliament house at Ottawa, leaving a pall of the most 
intense sorrow hanging over the nation. 

I was once witness in Montreal of an event in the life 
of the Hon. McGee, which showed him before the world 
in a clear light after his changeable career — making him 
hosts of friends. A former lawyer of some repute in the 
city, and formerly a friend of D'Arcy's, became his bit- 
terest enemy on hearing that McGee threw aside the 
Fenian interest for a more loyal profession. One day the 
two men met in Great St. James street, when the lawyer 
immediately spat in the face of his old associate. McGee 
threw out his cane as if for defence, but offered no retal- 
iation, as the crowd separated them. There was a heroism 
in this act on the part of McGee that may be misconstrued, 
but neverthless will give him a lustre singularly striking 
amongst his contemporaries. The heroism of Sir Philip 
Sidney, in the face of a similar insult, is nearly parallel. 

In this place may be mentioned the name of Alexander 
Mathieson, the noblest representative of the Scottish 



ACTORS IN THE FORUM 41 

church in Canada, and for thirty-five years minister of 
St. Andrew's in Montreal. In the midst of a circle of 
the most amiable qualities which have ever adorned the 
human person, men and women sought the aureole of his 
friendship, and never left his society with a murmur. A 
splendid type of the true pastor, he made no distinction 
in his calls of duty, and both rich and poor ever found 
him — at all hours of the night as well as the day — ready 
and eager to attend the sick and the dying. One of the 
most memorable episodes connected with his life relates 
to the visit of the Prince of Wales to Montreal. The 
doctor was set in the idea that the Scotch church was 
entitled just to as much deference at the hands of the 
prince as the English church, and he was determined 
not to rest till it was granted. But the prince and suite 
had already passed through Montreal. No matter: the 
Scotch church, with their famous leader, would pursue 
them till they secured their rights. The doctor first 
wrote a strong letter to the Duke of Newcastle — ^the 
prince's guardian — and followed it up by proceeding in 
formal method — he and the church elders — right on to 
Kingston, where they were conveyed to the steamer con- 
taining the prince, when he read with great clearness and 
fervor the memorable address. Touched with the courtly 
breeding and courtesy of the old veteran, after the formal 
salutations were over, the prince said, "Doctor Mathie- 
son, allow me to do myself the pleasure of shaking hands 



42 LIFE SKETCHES 

■with you." •• Gk>d bless you! " said the doctor, the tears 
rushing to his eyes. The good old man was satisfied. 
The Scotch loved him better than ever for his stubborn 
victory, and the whole province echoed the sentiment. 
Sad was the blow when his beautiful daughter, Janet 
Ewing — the hope and joy of the home after her mother's 
death — whUe bathing at Cacouna was suddenly drowned. 
A thrill ran through the country as to the agonizing 
shock that might result on his hearing of the disaster. 
But he bore it with splendid Christian fortitude, and 
soon after followed her in 1870, in his seventy -fifth year. 

Somewhat akin to this was the short career of the Rev. 
William Darrach, as grand a type of the true missionaiy 
as ever lived. Shortly after his arrival from the north 
of Scotland, he entered Queen's College, Kingston, and 
while as janitor there, entered on a course of study for 
the ministry. This man never knew anything of sec- 
tarianism in man, and as he preached in his church, or 
sat on the wayside, entering into conversation with all 
classes of society, every one fell in love with the 
simphcity of his nature and his fatherly way of illustrat- 
ing the Scripture. Quite suddenly in the heats of June. 
1864, he feU iQ, and in a few hours was dead. Though 
but a few months in the city, Montreal went into great 
mourning for her adopted son. 

One of the most accomplished men of our age. in all 
those qualities which give renown to scholarship and 



ACTORS IN THE FORUM 43 

dignity to private life. Sir VTilliam Da^vson. I had long 
known in Montreal. This gentleman never lost sight of 
the accretive faculty, and therefore as the lai'ge sheaves 
of knowledge fell into his lap. he held the scales with 
such exactness that one knew not which most to admire 
— his acquaintance with the realm of theological contro- 
versy, his researches in metaphysical and natural science, 
or his adventures in the field of poetry and letters. With 
these Dr. Dawson insensibly gathered round him a sun- 
shine that mellowed his countenance with cheerfulness 
and refinement. Xo pei-sonage was more heartily greeted 
in the streets of Montreal and no one seemed to bear the 
stress of ordinary cii'cumstance with more composure or 
gracefulness. 

Dr. Dawson ranked as a remarkably intrepid worker. 
Not only in the duties of college life, where he had long 
been a teacher; not only in the church, where he had 
also preached a true gospel: nor in the special chair of 
science and philosophy where he filled his seat with the 
noblest of the earth : but in those details which call forth 
a sjKjntaneity of nature which has invariably marked 
the best minds, has the professor come before the public. 
Nova Scotia has produced many brilliant sons : but Dr. 
Dawson, while the most modest and unassuming of men, 
challenges a place with those leaders who afiect society 
for generations. 

While pursuing missionary work at Grenville. I was 



44 IvIFE SKETCHES 

considerably annoyed by the peasantry regarding the 
actions of a weird character, dressed in rough homespun, 
slouch hat, pea jacket, and long waterproof boots, who 
day after day made his home on the Laurentian 
mountains. The superstitious, good-natured people 
kept shy of him— some thinking that he was possessed 
of a devil, as he was seen often to jump and strike the 
ground heavily, and then mysteriously hide himself in 
the rocks, whence there would issue such hangings and 
rumblings and infernal sounds as to strike terror into all 
the neighborhood, both man and beast, for miles. One 
morning I started out determined to ferret this hob- 
goblin myth to its source, and found no less a personage 
than the illustrious Sir William Logan, of the Canadian 
Geological Survey. "Well, we laughed, and his laugh 
had a resonance that must have sent that innocent 
country folk running into their corners. Our meeting 
was on the eve of the publication of his admirable work 
on the geology and mineralogy of the province. I was 
enabled to spend several hours with him after this in his 
happy home in Montreal, where, charmed with the 
simplicity of his life and vigor of his intellect, I bade him 
a last farewell. 

He who looks carefully into the career of John 
Lovell, printer and publisher, of Montreal, will find 
much to encourage and beautify his own life. As I was 
a few years in his employ, beginning in 1862, I had some 



ACTORS IN THE FORUM 45 

opportunities of knowing him. One secret of his success 
was his plodding, unyielding persistence in carrying out 
his plans. Great giant undertakings fell right in his 
way as simple incidents. Nothing daunted him. He 
entered into every department of his labor with the 
nicest finish and training, and never succumbed to 
disaster. He was engaged up to his death in probably 
the greatest undertaking of his life — the production of a 
geography of the British American possessions, in several 
large volumes, which, while it will tend to his celebrity, 
will add in many Avays not less to the wealth of the 
nation he so richly represented. 

Quite a prodigy of nature was Wm. Gordon, a proof- 
reader of Montreal, whose acquisitiveness for language 
was in itself a marvel. By nature saturnine, reserved 
and singularly self-abstracted, his taste ran radially from 
his mother-tongue to the most diflScult languages. With 
the modern tongues he easily mastered Greek, Hebrew 
and Arabic. While in Boston, in 1883, I found him 
taking up Persian and Coptic for companionship. He 
said he wanted kinship, and as his self-abnegation kept 
him from human society, he married language to save 
his life. A disciple of the school of Berkeley, the breath 
of inspiration settled upon him while defending the 
tenets of his master; and it must be said, with all 
deference to the abilities of Reid, the Scotch meta- 
physician, that the latter never arrived at such a true 



46 IvIFB SKETCHES 

conception of Berkeley's philosophy. Can we ever hope 
to see the day when civilization will get hold of these 
children of nature, and place them where they belong in 
our halls of learning ? Here one cannot help thinking of 
the utterance of Spinoza: "Governments should never 
found academies, for they serve more to oppress than to 
encourage genius." It certainly may be hoped that 
America will do her best to rescue such names from 
oblivion. 

It is quite in place here to say a good word anent John 
Dougall, long editor of the Montreal Witness. He was a 
man who helped to build character. As some have 
objected to his methods, let me show you the man. 
Beloved by his family, and kind to his workmen, he was 
generous to a fault. No apples nor grapes bloomed into 
fulness in his garden, but his employees as well as his 
own family were asked to regale themselves with the 
delicacy. Of course he respected a temperance man 
more than a tippler, and gave many benefits and delighted 
many a heart where no blessing or benefit was expected. 
Moreover he had winning ways of drawing out the 
thoughts and aspirations of his workmen. Many brilliant 
reforms owe their origin to his pen. His Sabbath very 
often found him in the pulpit or founding missionary 
stations for the sake of his Master. His partisan feelings 
in religion were sometimes bitter, but he spoke fearlessly 
under his name, and according to the light given him. 



ACTORS IN THE FORUM 47 

Just a word on Sir John A. Macdonald, the last, but I 
tell you the mightiest of the throng. I met him in 1874, 
and again a couple of years after. My first visit found 
the man taciturn but genial. A second visit revealed 
something of his mental reserves, of which he had a large 
storehouse. He was just then enjoying a rest after 
securing a slight victory over the opposition. The thing 
which peculiarly struck me about this Nestor of debate 
was his apparent disinterestedness and ease at a time 
when the gravity of pending issues called him im- 
mediately into action. He was so aware of his strength 
that unforeseen emergencies could not fluster him. His 
experiences in the school of statesmanship have been of 
incalculable benefit to the Dominion, and have placed 
his name high in the zenith of his country's grandeur. 

These men of genius— take them in a mass, 
Their quibbles, quartans, eccentricities— 
And view them as if standing in our presence. 
They gave us but a short hour with their lesson. 
But yet, as Nature's children at the door 
And vestibule of Truth, we find it pleasing 
To see their best, and in these accidents 
To trace a Master hand without a failure. 



CHAPTER V. 

EPIGRAMMATICAL. 

In my course of philosophy and theology I adopted 
the peripatetic method. My studies were desultory and 
informal. My teachers carried with them the prejudices 
of the schools, and allowed themselves to be checkmated 
by the walls of scepticism to which their theories in- 
evitably tended. I branched out for the doctrine of 
innate ideas; and thank Heaven that the twentieth 
century will witness grand discoveries in the realm of 
mind from a wiser knowledge of the worth of God's gift 
to His children. 

There are two faces rising up before me as I write, 
who, as they come and go, throw on the curtain of 
memory an impress of the noblest satisfaction. One of 
these was Duncan Morrison, the best teacher of my boy- 
hood days — stern, unyielding, in fact severe with his 
pupils; but gentleness and tenderness invariably pos- 
sessed him in his relations with myself. Our Latin class 
was accustomed day after day to the very climax of his 
passion, and as he neared me the storm passed away, his 
face lit up with a smile, and good humor resulted for the 
remainder of the hour. He was a grand teacher, — slow 



EPIGRAMMATICAL 49 

but sure in his aims. Had we all such teachers, life 
would lose much of its subsequent bitterness. 

A good many years after, while studying divinity, I 
was blessed in finding another excellent teacher, my 
Hebrew professor, the Rev. Prof. Mo watt, of Queen's 
College, Kingston, Canada. There I may say that I 
never opened my mouth, but at the same time learned to 
instruct others how to open theirs. I pay great def- 
erence to the ability of this teacher — for his study of 
nature in teaching, for his gentle method of dealing 
with the varied capacities of mind around him — 
a far-seeing man — one, therefore, who could afford to 
have patience ; it was the seal of his citizenship, and em- 
braced a prescience that gives peace and security to its 
possessor. 

The tendency of much of our religious life is agnostic. 
This is not the worst thing that could happen. Far 
worse is the tendency to entertain shallow, puerile ideas 
of religion — to live satisfied with husks that surely 
harass and weaken us in the great life struggle; to 
stand halfway, and exhibit a feebleness that makes us 
appear degenerate and unfit to substantiate and defend 
our very existence. 

A strong, vigorous mind must be broad, but not only 
that — its greatest strength must come from its depth. 
An able mind, conscious of its power, goes out to in- 
vestigate. What may be called a healthy, clear, incisive 



50 IvIFK SKETCHES 

nature cannot walk constantly in low ruts; he is de- 
termined, if he be a man at all, to peer to the uttermost 
horizon around him. And yet the moment he does so 
he is looked upon with suspicion by minor souls. 

No man can be honest to himself who forever lives on 
stereotyped creed or dogma. We all fall to it through 
our teachers for a while ; some from peculiar stamina 
cling to it all their lives. To such, creed is the sentry 
that leads them into place, and keeps them in deep 
furrows where they can see but little of the sky above 
them. But original minds have an orbit whose eccen- 
tricity is governed by a law which Nature gave them at 
birth, and this they involuntarily follow — it is their 
very life. Yet withal man is very slow in learning the 
most precious lessons of his birthright. 

The human soul indicates, from the animus it exhibits 
in our daily life, a state of action that may not inappro- 
priately be considered in the light of a comet flying 
through the air. There is nothing about mental capacity 
to prove that the soul is bound within certain walls, and 
must not step beyond. The path of history is marked 
by the labors of the noblest minds in the solution of the 
problem. Paul, Bunyan, aKempis, Wesley and Chil- 
lingworth sought in their views of the plan of salvation 
a resting-place for the soul in its inquiries regarding its 
own genesis. Their labors have tended toward develop- 
ing great influence in the formation of society. 



EPIGRAMMATIC AI. 51 

While Plato, Kant, Hobbes, Berkeley, Newton and 
Leibnitz, on the other hand, have been probing to the 
utmost of their knowledge the mysteries of spirit and 
matter, they are deserving of all the esteem the ages can 
give them. They have failed largely in their inquiries, 
but their labors continue to lift man higher and higher 
above the brute. 

The shortness of life in this body is a theme too 
solemn for the romance of the world. The subject runs 
counter to the ideas of millions, for truth is sweet but to 
a few. Life offers us such a large field for enjoyment 
that our perceptions care not to lay hold upon the in- 
visible. In some respects this disposition of our nature 
is to be commended. Life is the epitome of all that is 
lovable and beautiful in God's universe, but death has a 
negative aspect — it is cold and chilling in its approaches. 
The one, like the blood of its tenement, is impetuous and 
warm ; the other seems but a shadowy pantomime where 
Melancholy and Disaster hold dreary carnival. It would 
not be consistent with this nature of ours that we should 
be continually meditating on death. The ascetics of the 
early ages found here their standing ground, and dis- 
graced their manhood by travestying nature. 

The quality which stamps man and makes him what 
he is, is the moral quality, and this pertains to spiritual 
existence. We thus enter the doorway of religion. We 
cannot live without it. The grandeur of our being lies 



52 LIFE SKETCHES 

in our spiritual nature. When man once realizes that 
there is some tinge of the infinite in every human soul, 
he has nothing more than a fitting conception of him- 
self. He is a being of growth. The material body- 
increases m size — then apparently rests, except in the 
alchemy of change. The soul increases in vision. The 
years roll on, yet the soul takes a wider and more re- 
juvenating bound; the body totters and falls, but the 
soul springs outward more elastic and brilliant than 
ever — telling us in the plainest of languages that the 
soul and body are distinct substances. 

The mind is the man, and naturally seeks for a supreme 
parent. It matters not what are the symbols adopted, 
man looks without to find some reflection of the deity 
within. His ideal takes color largely from his environ- 
ment. Thus in barbarous nations the ideals are very 
rarely high, for such a prospect could only tend to 
danger. Even in civilized nations, where the ideals are 
often lofty, minds are misunderstood, and stand isolated 
because they have the courage to defend the seal their 
Maker stamped upon them. Faith and virtue grow in 
the soul as trees in the field, and man must love and 
worship. He is therefore subject to his own moral 
power. And when this is sharpened through experience 
and trial he grows up into a religious being. 

Reverence is the one great underlying principle of 
honest investigation. All the noblest thinkers in art, 



EPIORAMMATICAL 53 

scieno- - _^:ri-: .ir :,:.::- ii-rre for sneltrr. Men and 

women are str^n^ :L:e:iel in the great 11:^ ; 1 '. r? ! ? : . ; : :.- 
ing to their conceptioiis of this :'.-:^^.:::i_. To b^e 
humble in our ■:'_'/_.: it, to have fitr:::.. L-^:>ect for the 
lines of gradation 'l^;:'^ n-^ t:' ":: " ■ "— ively to 

the beautiful and :de -■,"d:n-_e :: -^'n ^ _:_ __nre Tah- 
dued and sacrea -r^-Zj '■:■:-. ''~- r/nnn.in ':nT Hn;" ;: Holies 

finement in the "n n- -n :: :n:-^ "n: ^ :• onward in the 
great stra-n.r : ':j::::..\:. i^n:- Tne farmer, the day 
laborer, the sien^dom. :it :-?.:n^: n:-r -ener. the judge, 
m?o~ ::er:n:^ene in :ne=:T r:'.'"'n':r,^T~, Xone is ex- 
extensive kn:^ :nni, 

I thrininn in: ^nTeendnT— nr'ni'd as one of the 
mi : n,~ ; mans well-being in his search for 
truth. Let me put patience as another, and by all 
means energy as a third. Observation is the ground- 
work of our labor. On this we build. Our classic lore — 
Greek, Latin, German, etc., will not help us much with- 
out tills foundation: they give us material for clothing 
our thought, but tiie ideas arise from the wells of intro- 
spection — ^they are there waiting for the piercing lens 
of the earnest sight-seer. C»bservation is the key that 
has opened the gates of Paradise; that has found Oenius 
Iq her cell, and bade her come forth to the world; that 
has rent the chains of anarchy, and breathed the healthy 



54 LIFE SKETCHES 

air of freedom; that has bade the poet sing the lofty- 
strains of other worlds to human hearts. True teachers, 
therefore, will make this a great point in their endeavors, 
to teach their pupils to see rightly, to look within, and 
find where their wealth lies. When this is once com- 
passed, the outer world opens before us like the flash of 
an aurora, and man finds his true place as a monarch 
in the universe. 

The moral nature of man is progressive. Some are 
infants through life; their scope of years embraces 
relatively no more than a small house ; some venture 
out as far as a mile ; some take in an extensive province ; 
some sweep round the towering Andes; some embrace 
the sun; some look over universes. Is it any wonder 
that man is religious ? Is he such a fool, with his ap- 
titudes, to sit down and cry like a child, "I can know no 
more ?" No, this is not the prerogative of mind. Nor is 
it likely that man, who possesses aptitudes to embrace 
vast riches in his mental telescope, is to embrace nothing. 
This would show imbecility in the Creator. The Al- 
mighty would be laughed to scorn by His own subjects. 
The case must be argued differently. 

The trend of existence in nature as in grace is in the 
line of beneficence — "Ask, and ye shall receive." Man 
comes upon the stage of life : he involuntarily asks for 
bread, and finds it at his door. Spiritual growth, the 



KPIGRAMMATlCAIv 55 

result, the product of infinite essence — is the law of the 
mind, as physical growth is of the body. 

Just as clear, therefore, as the bright sun in the 
heavens is the truth expressed, that man has some 
appanage within that speaks in tones subdued, but ever 
on the alert. Whence is it ? Is this not the finger of 
the potter on the clay ? Man must, from his very nature, 
be religious, or he should be a brute, not a man. Here 
in the zenith of the Divine wonders, embellishing the 
whole range of being with the brightest halos, stands 
the great mosaic of fact — life, which is ours for some 
purpose; and that man is indeed unfortunate who has 
tasted its sweets, and yet goes down to his grave, empty, 
careless and dishonored. 

Faith has done much to embellish and beautify the 
life of man. But Faith and Eeason, married by the 
Divine hand, form the very key that opens up the pano- 
rama of the heavens and the earth. 

The breadth of a single mind seems at times to have 
the sweep of an archangel. Just to speak of our own 
day, look at the case of Henry Ward Beecher. Of his 
contemporaries probably not ten men in any depart- 
ment of life have done so much for the growth of 
humanity. Take the last thirty years of his career, 
when the whole man had been unfolded (the errors of his 
life being in comparison like a handful of dust beside the 
Alps) and we may well be amazed at what mind may do. 



56 IvIFK SKETCHES 

The reason why Beecher has cast such an influence 
upon the many-sided aspects of civilization is just be- 
cause he involuntarily — from obedience to the law of his 
nature — fell in line with the progress of the age. He 
spread sunshine everywhere. Fear with its ebon wings 
flew away. Man had more sympathy for man, and more 
love for God. The seer of Plymouth takes us right into 
the arcana of nature, and there unveils the gorgeousness, 
the terror, the sublimity of the scene — making us love 
the divine more than ever before, and throwing into the 
far distant future a radiance that will cheer and beautify 
whole races of men. 

The elements of cheerfulness, energy and honesty have 
so much to do in the building up of perfect character, 
that he would be indiscreet who should say they are not 
salutary principles. And when these are crowned by a 
ripe intelligence, man, superior to passion, forms a 
splendid earthly type of a nearly perfect being. 

That there is some close relation binding us to the All- 
Father is absolutely more true than the distinction 
between darkness and light. That this Father loves us, 
and has given us certain faculties to keep near Him, is 
evident; that He would do anything for the bettering of 
his subjects, consonant with his perfections, is evident ; 
that the infinity of his being and the finiteness of our 
conceptions will forever prevent our knowing Him as He 
is, is no less evident; that from love for his own off- 



EPIGRAMMATICAL 57 

spring He has opened and will open ways for arriving at 
a closer knowledge of Himself, is evident ; that therefore 
a revelation of Himself is of special fitness, and seems 
natural from the wealth of its source. God loves man ; 
He has certified this love in many respects, but in none 
so natural and simple as this of coming in our own flesh 
to dweU among us. Precious reflection of the love of 
God as manifested in the sacred Man ! 

Now, analyzing these mysterious intuitions that God 
has planted in the human soul, and doing this in as dis- 
creet and decent a manner as possible, we find that there 
is a perfect accord regarding this work of the incarna- 
tions. We must respect our intuitions. Coming un- 
called for at the strangest times, always on the side of 
purity, they declare there is no contradiction — that the 
sanctity of the Divine Gift on the one side, and the change 
wrought upon the heart on the other, is the true evidence. 

When individuals therefore rise to a high plane of this 
Divine consciousness, they are led, from the very nature 
of the work on their own minds, to proclaim it earnestly 
to others. In this great culmination of God's love for 
the race, they behold the climax of their own grandeur. 
They are impelled to preach most that truth that will 
benefit society here, and fit the soul for that higher 
existence in which both revelation and nature agree. 

The reader will see that I had been revolving the ar- 
gument quite a time before stepping out on the religious 



58 IvlFE SKETCHES 

platform . But the truth faced me, and I was obliged to 
respond. My first step strengthened the resolution. 
There were many obstacles, many embarrassments ; but 
the words rang strongly in my ear, ' ' He that puts his 
hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the king- 
dom of God." 

O how often as I look 
On man's face, that human book, 
With his wondrous blazing eye, 
Wealth of an eternity! 
When I turn and turn the leaves, 
How my gentle spirit grieves ! 
How the storms so thick and fast 
Beat upon him to the last ! 
Not enough of bread to eat. 
Not the comfort of reti'eat, 
Not a word to cheer his home. 
Not a picture nor a tome. 
And when baby comes to earth 
Sacred in Its homely birth, 
There is none to greet its face, 
Not a glow of human grace. 
All alone, the mother's tear 
Proves that God is very near. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTICAL. 

Not long since I gave an address at Springfield, L. I., 
impressing upon my hearers the charms of much physical 
exercise and a serene life as the gates that lead to the 
Hesperides of Health ; and on my return in the capacious 
wagon with some two dozen happy hearts, whose songs 
of pure joy and merriment soared far in the distance, 
I found pleasant sleep in a cosy farmhouse at Foster 
Meadows. Next morning I sallied out on my way to 
Brooklyn, but the thousand voices of Nature bade me 
slow up and visit a poor afflicted woman in her sixtieth 
year, not far from Jamaica. For long months she had 
suffered from neuralgia, when some unwise person urged 
her to have all the lower teeth withdrawn as her only 
hope of relief, and some more foolish dentist, like a wild 
beast, wrenched thirteen teeth from their sockets. De- 
mentia rapidly set in, and the poor victim had been 
rolling in agony on her bed for weeks, rapidly sinking, 
when I called on her. The scene was sore and saddening, 
as she suddenly sat up in bed, her eyes wild with pain, 
and seizing me with her bony hands, ' ' O where is He ?" 
said she, " I have not seen Him to-day; I have lost Him. 



6o LIFE SKETCHES 

O tell me where is Jesus ?" I endeavored to soothe her, 
citing the rich promises of His words, but she would not 
be comforted for a time, when on leaving I invoked the 
Divine blessing upon her, my right hand on her feverish 
brow, and my left locked in her right as she fell asleep. 

Arriving at home about 4.30 p. m. after a thirteen mile 
walk, I partook of some refreshment, and half an hour 
later started for Paterson, N. J., where I was to preach 
Sunday morning ; but when I arrived at Jersey City, the 
evening was setting in, and the horizon here and there 
presenting patches of cloud pale and crimson, that threw 
me into ecstacies, and reveling in the enjoyment, knowing 
that there was more to come, I resolved to take a pleasant 
twelve mile walk to Passaic. On the slope of the Pater- 
son road, leaving Jersey City, a traveler ought to be in 
a splendid frame of mind. On my left there were the 
wide marshes, and the calm, quiet Hackensack rolling 
sleepily along; but just above, the heavens with the 
setting sun were dazzling in their effulgence. Byron saw 
nothing more beautiful from his description of the Morea. 
What tranquillity falls upon the soul in the wealth of 
such a scene! It is on just such occasions that we are 
enabled to lift the veil of being, and enter into a court- 
ship that need never be obliterated. 

Now we all have heard something of the Jersey flats 
or meadows, Jersey mosquitos, Jersey lightning, etc. ; 
but excuse me, reader, there is poetry in the Jersey flats. 



PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTICAL 6i 

It was fourth of July night, and the heavens as well as 
the earth were alive with fireworks. If I turned once, 
I turned fifty times, stood still, and uncovered my head 
in the presence of such sublimity. "In my Father's 
house there are many mansions." There are some of 
them, and I feasted in a luxuriance greater than man 
ever tasted at this earthly table. But then the mosqui- 
tos were asleep. 

How the myriads of fireflies danced around me, and 
the will-o'-the-wisp played such tricks as I tracked it 
with a juvenility that would have astonished our city 
fathers. Carlstadt sat glimmering in the distance, a 
little town set on a hill, and as I approached I met some 
two or three of its citizens striding uproariously with 
arms akimbo as if they owned the earth. The road on 
each side between Carlstadt and Passaic is in places lined 
with thick forest. People were here and there disporting 
themselves with fireworks, and passing them I proceeded 
with a quicker step, when bang, fizz, from the darkness 
up goes a tremendous bomb and rocket fully three 
hundred feet in the air. I felt its stinging heat and 
breath on my face. One step more and I might have 
been carried up amidships for fifty feet, to come down 
in several pieces. dear spirit of Descartes, let me still 
say with thee, Cogito: ergo sum. 

I love men — real, thorough men, and women too, as 
far as that goes, and I love to see them playing their 



62 LII^E SKETCHES 

main parts. You know there are individuals among us 
who don't know what they are here for. Some of them 
are singularly learned too — and yet four words express 
the breadth of their vocabulary— idling, grunting, eating, 
sleeping. There is no progress in their geography. And 
to see their heavy, passive, indolent forms day after day, 
gives me the blues. I like motion, and when I am taking 
a brisk walk, to see how some of the three or four pound 
stones which intrude upon my feet immediately take 
wings on a high tangent is amusing. For that reason I 
like quiet country walks, where no head may be broken, 
and no lawsuit result. 

Some three years ago, when enjoying an agreeable 
ambulation, I suddenly stopped and asked a passer-by 
for information regarding a street, but he dodged so 
rapidly that I inquired what was the matter. "Why," 
said he, ' 'the way you sailed along, and stopped all in a 
jiffy — I was afraid you would shoot me." I begged 
pardon, and said that I was merely taking a little ramble. 

I am no aristarch in criticism, and so like to hedge 
around true character, and look down for the gems lying 
in the soil. For this purpose I sometimes take hold of 
the most ungainly, unkempt little children, and as I 
wipe away the grime from their pretty faces, I look into 
the deep ocean of their eyes, and see a great deal. It 
is astonishing what languages these eyes speak, all the 
way up from infancy, and the true observer need not be 



PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTlCAIv 63 

disappointed in his investigations — not at all. This is 
generally my first step in grasping at character as well 
as aptitude — it is synthetical and simple, and therefore 
the safest way. 

I do esteem men who, when they are strong enough, 
like to throw out their feelers, and see where they are 
standing. A man must delve and dig in his own nature 
to find out his resources. A ripened mind is like a deep 
well with a thick soil of the most promiscuous materials, 
where all the capacities and affections have been storing 
for years the choice things of ages ; and there, the owner, 
as he labors day after day, learns to sort, arrange and 
utilize his creations. What a mine of wealth was that 
soul of Plato's, of whom Emerson said that he had an- 
ticipated all our learning. 

What a great blessing it is when we can speak and 
reason with minds well rounded and well-developed. 
When I see men talking every blessed day about buying 
acres, building houses, and eating splendid dinners, I 
somehow feel as if I am in a dungeon, where the air is 
musty, and I cannot breathe. A rounded mind is well- 
balanced. He takes his faculties at their full worth; he 
finds in them a storehouse of supplies for that strange 
soul with which he is endowed. The past, present, the 
future are within his province. He does not rush away 
into one corner of his being, and there nurse and idolize 
one faculty to the neglect of all the rest. His perceptive 



64 LIFK SKETCHES 

nature is developed; he finds that, in spite of all the 
amorphisms in society, his life is like a vessel sailing out 
into a broader and deeper sea ; and he finds that no mat- 
ter how much he may learn, his faculties are so well 
adapted to meet the needs of his development, that he 
may live a very enjoyable life even in this bustling world. 

To tell the truth this world is no very easy road to 
travel for honest men. For honesty is worth a fortune 
any day, and the good man knows it. If such a man 
reasons not as other men, he cannot help it. That he 
has the right kind of wealth is evident — he has a sound, 
clear conscience ; he can sleep peacefully at night ; he can 
cheerfully pay his debts, he can walk uprightly, and 
look a man in the face ; he is not afraid to put his hand 
to any worthy labor ; he is not afraid of being plain and 
outspoken in his utterances. In one word, he loves life; 
and, properly speaking, if there be a rich man in this 
world, he is one. He doesn't think of that, and it doesn't 
necessarily concern him ; but he carries some inherent 
sense of contentment and cheerfulness that makes the 
world bow to him as a man. The man who, in short, 
rightly loves life, is the richest man to be found on this 
planet. 

Look at the obverse side of the medal. There is an 
immense amount of dishonesty in our civilized life, and 
with this dishonesty there is much unhappiness. It is 
remarkable that the bone of contention is the dragon of 



PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTICAL 65 

gold. It is admitted without dissent that those who 
possess the most, are mihappy — fear, suspicion, avarice 
alternate with insomnia, paresis, etc., and keep them 
poor. Poor indeed. They do not know how to love life, 
and start digging their own sepulchres as if it were for a 
wager. 

Were not Socrates, Dante, Des Cartes, Samuel John- 
son rich in comparison ? Rich indeed ; they have been 
feeding the world for generations with nourishment to 
build up great men. The golden idolaters are buried, 
and contemporaneous history speaks of them in such 
bitter irony as to hint that they did not really enjoy life, 
and therefore could only be classed with the lowest poor. 

To get right into the argument at once : Life is given 
to every individual for some purpose, as the subsequent 
days or years consequently prove. Successive civiliza- 
tions (so slow is our unhappy race in learning any good 
thing) have convinced us that when we are distinctly 
called to act a necessary part in any reform, as we value 
our happiness we will not let the opportunity slip. What 
mysterious instinct was that which prompted Milton, 
Audubon, or Lord Brougham to follow certain lines as 
their very safety— any divergence, they feared, might 
result in suicide. Thousands of men and women commit 
self-murder every year as a natural sequence of violating 
natural instincts. Let me adduce a common illustration : 
Here is a young man, of noble, refined tastes, yet earn- 



66 LIFE SKETCHES 

ing his bread, year after year, in the midst of low asso- 
ciates. He stands isolated — his bias is firm on the side 
of temperance and religion, but his surroundings are 
morbidly antagonistic. Events call him in due time to 
act according to his ability, and take his part as a worker. 
He wavers ; he has been losing ground ; again and again 
has he avoided the opportunity to do a little or to say a 
word to encourage progress. He hopes, he again 
promises, but again is wanting; he cannot muster the 
resolution — and at length awakes to the fact that he has 
lost his moral power, and that life is useless without it, 
and rushes like Saul on his own sword. All sensitive 
and refined intelligent minds discern some shading 
of this in their own experience. The motive and the 
principle of volition do not always run on the same plane ; 
and when the motive is not pure and honest, and the 
mind is forced from its customary volitions to enter into 
a transaction, the rebound on the moral nature is so ter- 
rifying that many prefer death to the mental agony that 
results. Thus it is that many of the noblest minds of 
history have risen out of the lowest and most degrading 
positions : Nature and conscience having taken them to 
the verge of the precipice, and shown them the place 
where their sin would eventually land them ; and it is 
just on the brow of this precipice that man has enrolled 
himself in his fight against diabolism, and written his 
name high among the worthies. 

For it is a remarkable truth that where the Almighty 



PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTICAL 67 

has given great intellectual power He has placed us in 
the midst of a great battlefield, where on one side it may 
be the most revolting animal excitements are endeavoring 
to drag us down, and the noble graces and virtues on the 
other side are endeavoring to lift us higher and higher. 
The more gifted the soul, the more arduous and dificult 
the trial ; but those who are true and brave enough to 
come out as victors will even in this world find some- 
where a garden of delight. 

The acme of the noblest education terminates in certain 
accomplishments which give man the privilege, it may 
be said, of using a coat of mail suited to every conceiv- 
able aspect of society. He holds the key of symbolism 
in his hand, and steps with the greatest ease from one 
world of action into another. How much sorrow and 
suffering might be avoided in our married life where 
there is no natural affinity, yet where the law has sanc- 
tioned the bond of union, could the wiser individual rise 
to the benefits which exist in the multifarious simplicity 
of his own mother-tongue, and thus make the way 
smooth and pleasant that had been so long covered with 
thorns. The seers and poets fall into this language as a 
natural heritage. Shrewd, wise men are often driven by 
necessity to adopt it. Durer, Addison, Milton found 
that life had a soft pillow after all, and they need not lay 
on a bed of thorns. 

That was a quaint and well-spiced utterance of Hobbes 



68 LIFE SKETCHES 

of Malmesbury: "Words are wise men's counters, but 
the money of fools." The sentiment has been stereo- 
typed for generations. It is astonishing to look over 
the writings of this prodigious mind and see the 
grains of truth dazzling with lustrous brilliancy, in a 
diction chaste, clear and simple, that any one, it might 
be said, may understand; and yet we look at him to-day 
perfectly satisfied with what a few critics have narrated 
— we allow him to remain a mute, silent figure in our 
libraries, and when he comes up as a witness in our 
controversies no figure in history is more misconstrued, 
or misunderstood. 

Nevertheless words are still wise men's counters ; and 
it happens that the dictum of Hobbes stands as a pair of 
balances, on one scale of which the more thoughtful 
weigh their products ; and on the other where f ustianed 
pamphleteers, erotic schools and literary dryasdusts 
crowd with a vengeance, and are speedily bounced into 
oblivion. 

The moral life of our age is famed for sciolism. Said 
one of our professional teachers to me one day — one with 
whom I fraternised in a literary club some forty-two 
years ago : ' 'You see I take splendidly with my people ; 
my physique pleases them ; round dark eyes, clear, full 
skin, handsome hair, graceful manner." Did you ever ! 
Ah, I thought, that's it, is it ? Now, with all his bluster, 
this man had to take a far back seat in the councils of 



PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTICAL 69 

Ms church ; the physical framework failed for want of 
the intellectual. But the conceit and bluster of our age 
go to great leng-ths. 

Once in conversation with a lady who was about to de- 
liver an address on John B. Gough, the temperance 
reformer, I asked her regarding some special qualities 
of the man she intended to delineate. 

"Ah," said she, "the passion he exhibits is natural^ 
he makes me his friend at once ; but, besides, his pictures 
are so terrible — he carries me right to the scene of his 
adventures — I forget everything else." 

Now this is a sufficient test. Where Nature gives us 
opportunity to garner in these rich fields of the universe, 
and also gives us aptitudes to lay hold of the diviner 
manifestations of life, and present them to others, we are 
called to do it at any cost, for our responsibility cannot 
be thi*ust on another's shoulders. 

When but a child the lines of Smollett caught my ear, 
and their recurrence in my memory is something 
strangely sweet: 

" Thy spirit, Independence, let me share, 
Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye." 

Away from their immediate application, I found them 
falUng as a benison when I set my mind to study the 
great and wonderful things of God: I couldn't rest a 
moment — my physical frame as well as my soul took 
coloring, and glowed with a new life. Rocks, trees. 



70 IvIFE SKETCHES 

flowers, streams spoke a language of their own. They 
were opening the door of nature, and coquetting with 
the inner sense. 

And to be a thorough good soldier for life's battlefield 
a man must have some independence. No man ever spoke 
a greater truth than Cowper, in the couplet : 

•'He is a freeman whom tbe truth makes free, 
And all are slaves beside"— 

and over the broad Atlantic I see two noble minds (for 
their physical presence has vanished) still acting on that 
principle — seeking for truth with a sweetness and 
grandeur of soul — Max Muller and George Mivart ; and 
many of us fight shy of them, and would decry them as 
unfriendly to the truth within them. O no ! They at 
least respect these monitions, though they cannot trace 
their origin. 

Yes, I am looking for free, outspoken, genuine liber- 
ality in Christian thought. We always gain when we are 
honest in our endeavors in fathoming the tide of things 
around us. Methinks that in the Bible there is a variety 
but a safeguard that may be depended upon. The more 
closely we read it, we inherit more and more that peculiar 
genius which fits us for the opening future. 

An honest sensible thinker will not allow himself to be 
handicapped by his profession. Whether a grave-digger, 
porter, painter, or any true artisan whatsoever — aware 
that his genius rises above such consideration, he goes 



PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTICAL 71 

on to victory conscious of the fire that bums within him. 
The friendships of the nobly great are high above all 
commendation. 

It was said that Queen Elizabeth wrote of Ben Jonson, 
the poet and mason : 

"With trowel and rule 
Works many a fool," 

and that Jonson replied in this distich : 

" In satin and scarlet 
Walks many a harlot." 

But history has not told us that any blood was shed in 
consequence. 



CHAPTER VII. 

A RACE FOR LIFE, WITH SOME HINTS FOR 
AMATEUR LECTURERS. 

Let me tell the reader in this chapter something that 
will cheer him, and start him hunting for some reserved 
forces that may make him a new man. Given good 
sense, fair ability, a spice of self-denial, a share of 
patience, an extra share of cheerfulness, and one hundred 
tons of energy, there is no reason under heaven why 
circumstances should make a man miserable, and tie him 
to the iron wheel of necessity. God has placed us here 
in a paradise called Earth, and while men throw them- 
selves for the sake of dollars into cooped-up, unhealthy 
oflBces year in and year out with no rest or recreation, 
then most assuredly they eat the forbidden fruit, and 
must entail the penalty. 

In that wonderful Book so full of pregnant questions, 
there is one which runs in this fashion, ' ' What shall a 
man give in exchange for his soul ?" — or for his life, for 
the soul, in fact, is the very life of man, being the 
vehicle of the life. "There is a spirit in man, and the 
inspiration (or the inbreathing) of the Almighty giveth 
him understanding." Now, as I have no time in my 



A RACE FOR LIFE 73 

short visit on this planet to look for anything less than 
essential truths, I do not think that it would be honorable 
to misstate the results of my short travel for health, and 
hide the greater truth in a sea of evasion. While I found 
but little of that yellow metal called gold on my voyage, 
I yet found great riches ; and I may answer the sacred 
question by asking another — How much is this new life 
in which I participate worth to me ? a thousand, a 
hundred thousand, a million dollars, or how much ? I 
am singularly fond of life, I am very much in love with 
it. And therefore, speaking like an honest man, it seems 
to me that in a healthy body and healthy mind there is 
more wealth than all the Californias and Indies yield in 
their possessions. 

Sixteen years ago I fell a victim to a strange disease. 
Some called it rose fever, some hay fever, some infernal 
fever, and this latter was perhaps the nearest approach 
to its nomenclature, as it would seize me about the 
month of August with most diabolical titillations in the 
nostrils, throw me into spasms of violent sneezing, then 
into a flood of perspiration, followed by such a complete 
blocking up of the olfactory passages, as if huge blocks 
of wood were driven through right into the brain. Eest 
was out of the question ; for no sooner would I throw 
myself on my bed than the jaw would fall, the mouth 
become speedily parched, and cold trickles of water 
make their way down the throat. You say that this was 



74 LIFB SKETCHES 

indeed a frightful disease, but the sequel was even more 
frightful. I was obliged to close my windows tightly, 
and breathe a bestial vitiated air that I might at all live ; 
or open them, and that clear fluid, which for years I 
looked upon as the most precious heritage God ever gave 
man, became demonized, as if a million of devils sur- 
rounded me, and rushed with the force of a Niagara into 
the air passages, causing such paroxysms of physical 
agony as to drive me to my wits' end. 

This affection seized me in its clutches for about five 
months from August till December, and kept at it for 
two years. Medical treatment, I soon found out, was of 
no avail. I had studied the debit and credit side of the 
question. My nature revolted at the drug market: and 
as I saw Death lurking in the pot there, I soon gave it 
up. And for some months I brooded over a scheme 
that I must mention to the reader. 

When I realized the sensation that the great principle 
of life apparently became the messenger of death, and 
that to live I must shut myself up in close, dingy, un- 
ventilated rooms, I began to grumble at my Creator. 
Life lost its enjoyment, and I set myself to the endeavor 
of finding out whether I might not resort to some method 
of alleviating this suffering in death without infringing 
upon the sanctities of our highest morality. No living 
being can imagine the suffering through which I passed. 
And if the world, on one side, should dare to sneer at me 



A RACE FOR LIFE 75 

for dwelling upon the incident, I should, on my own 
side, prove an ingrate were I, in a life sketch, to pass by 
a matter which had such an ominous bearing on my 
subsequent existence. 

About this time Henry Ward Beecher passed away. 
The event fell upon me with the force of a concussion. I 
felt as if my right arm had been severed from my body. 
And yet I had met this man in conversation only some 
eight or nine times. But what a blank he left in my 
heart ! Beecher is yet waiting for his eulogy. We are 
too near him to see him in his full grandeur. 

I forgot my pain, prepared a paper on Beecher, and 
delivered the eulogy quietly. Had I something of the 
financial business tact about me I could have piled up 
money on that venture, but I was thoroughly satisfied at 
the result, and found in my bosom the key that opened 
the doors to Hygeia's temple, where, in the sweet in- 
spiration of CHANGE, all the winged graces of Heaven 
flew around me, and I inherited a new life, and some- 
thing more beautiful than ever before. 

This was the beginning of a lecture course of nine 
months, which I will briefly detail here. The reader can 
see that it was a critical turning point in my own life, 
and furnishes a splendid illustration of the truth of the 
axiom that God helps those who help themselves. 
Energy, stubborn energy saved me. Privation never 
deprived me of my cheerful aess. If there be one gift for 



76 UFB SKETCHES 

which I have reason to thank God to-day as a blessing 
far above all rubies it is the grace of cheerfulness. No 
matter what difficulties faced me, by day or night, I kept 
that as a pearl of great price. My energy in connection 
with this enabled me to beat down mountains. I am 
aware that I traveled on the brink of hazard, but there 
was a heroism in it that gave it a divine sanction. 

A man's life is like a book ; let him look over it and 
read it carefully, and he cannot fail to find just when he 
should turn the leaf. And moreover, he must consult his 
own nature about these leaves. In the great life episodes, 
successful men invariably rush into the theatre of their 
own hearts ; they are matters too sacred to consult the 
world about : but weak minds invariably look for the 
nod of their neighbors. 

When we are certain of finding minds whose scope of 
action seems throughout similar to our own, even then it 
is only with the greatest delicacy we can seek their 
counsel. A man's years are not at all counted in such 
an argument. The loftier the mind, the more difficult 
to find the congener ; and our loving mother Nature hints 
of our needs just at the right time and place through the 
intuitions. No matter how gifted the soul, there is the 
monitor ready by his side to dictate in his difficulties. 
And yet this knowledge is only acquired through the 
keenest observation. 

A man may hold a very high position in life as a 



A RACB FOR LIFE 77 

teacher, and yet be subject to strange prejudices and 
even jealousies, which to others seem terribly beneath 
the dignity of his name. By reason of this weakness, 
therefore, the wiser minds confine themselves within 
their own citadels; and it will be found that in this 
measure of their individuality they leave the noblest and 
purest impress on art, science and literature. 

And so, throwing away the ordinary bands of conven- 
tionalism — church, place and society, I started forward 
on what some would call a wild adventure, like a rash 
youth of twenty years. 

Events unfolded themselves very pleasantly. Newark, 
N. J., was my first station outside of this State. My 
subject was partly political, yet I endeavored to be im- 
partial, and to mete out even justice in dissecting the 
subject on hand. But the next day one of my auditors 
met me on the street, and handled me with much sever- 
ity, stating that I should have been hustled very violently 
off the platform — that he had started on his feet to do it 
— for daring to say one word in favor of Sir William 
Gladstone. A little spice of this kind did not deter me. 

But an unseen providence led me in a healthier groove. 
My next move was for Yonkers. Winter was on me 
with her wet blanket of snow. I bought my ticket at 
the Grand Central Station, New York, and, waiting for a 
few moments in the car, my old distemper violently 
seized me. I was determined to live free from pain while 



78 LIFE SKETCHES 

I should live, for now I had the secret. So, rushing out 
of the car, I tore up my ticket and walked all the way 
to Yonkers. A heavy snow-storm met me on my journey, 
and was never more welcome. The air grew cold and 
exhilarating, and a strange aura of health took possession 
of me. What a transformation ! There was nothing in 
the Arabian Nights to equal it. 

I lost no time in securing the Temperance Hall there ; 
and, introduced by Rev. Mr. Ullman, an Episcopal 
clergyman, I gave my lecture on Beecher. The audience 
was small but select, and the best humor prevailed 
through the evening. 

Then I started up for Newburgh — wide-awake. For, 
like a Divine voice ringing in my heart, my conscious- 
ness caught the whisper : "Son, attend to thy business, 
thou art here for health, not for money." 

I fell like a thunderbolt on the Newburghers, and could 
not, after long hunting, secure a church, so engaged the 
City Mission chapel. Then to the printer to strike 
off tickets, " Distinguished Personages I Have Met." I 
rapped at the door of an unknown gentleman's residence, 
and, introducing myself, gave him a clew to the situa- 
tion, saying, " Do you think the public would be interested 
in my opinions ?" "Yes, sir, and they ought to be willing 
to pay for them. There are so many fools running around 
with their gimcracks, that the people are starving for 
something better. Give me fifty tickets — I will speak of 



A RACE FOR LIFE 79 

this to my friends." I was astonished, but I was en- 
couraged ; and found out that this little angel Courtesy 
was one of the sweetest pets I ever met in my life. The 
meeting proved a success. 

Wappinger Falls was my next station. I had sent on 
tickets four days previously. The Hudson was frozen 
over, a heavy snow storm had swept the country ; the 
thermometer was near zero, and the biting northwest 
wind swept around me like scalding water. But I was 
in for it ; my lecture was for Monday night ; and on 
Saturday morning I started out on foot in that blizzard, 
and had a grand kiss from Boreas, no mistake: I ran 
like a lion in his strength, constantly rubbing my face 
and my ears, and inhaling deeper than wont the frozen 
air, till I arrived at Cold Spring, some ten or twelve 
miles. Here I entered a place for refreshment before 
taking the car, when I was accosted by some one near 
the station. "This day is a terror," said he. "Yes," 
said I, "I have just been taking a walk in it." "How 
far?" "From Peekskill." "You're a liar; you can't 
fool me — no living man could walk four miles even in 
such a blizzard as that." "All right — I did it." 

After refreshment I rode a few miles to Wappinger 
Falls. Friend Mitchell worked like a hero all day Mon- 
day. The result was that we had a very good meeting 
with three clergymen on the platform. Thence to Troy, 
where I had some pleasing adventures. 



8o LIFE SKETCHES 

The Trojans are a strange, peculiar people, particularly 
the West set. I would not have felt at home, not a bit 
of it ; but that cunning old sweetheart of mine — Nature — 
had the usually muddy streets all carpeted with the 
richly-driven snow, and the cold west wind whistled 
around me like a peal of wedding bells. I had sent all 
my surplus cash down to Brooklyn, and understood there 
were friends who anticipated my arrival — but where 
were they ? The snow in places lay six feet high, and I 
had some heavy travelling; it was nine at night, I had 
already walked some sixteen or eighteen miles. "Ha! 
there's the house at last." No, no; house after house, 
street after street — no hope. Eleven o'clock — yet cheer- 
ful, undaunted. Some one had mentioned a Mr. John 
Ross, who was a member of a society that had known 
me in another nation in my earlier years. I know what 
human nature is; I felt that I was all right. Whispered 
through the key-hole — ' ' Stamboul . " " Half -past twelve 
— come in." We shook hands; we knew each other. 
Well done for Troy ! 

Was I treated like a king ? You better believe it. I 
was the hero of the West Trojans while I remained ; and 
they secured Park Place Hall for my address. I took up 
" Distinguished Personages" away from the time of Sir 
Allan MacNab, of my boyhood days, down to Beecher. 
The house was well filled, we had some ringing applause : 
and yet that faithful monitor kept singing out, "Look 
out, son, you came here for health, and not for money." 



A RACE FOR LIFE 8i 

Nevertheless I sent home a good handful of shekels 
to my family, but was not allowed to leave Troy im- 
mediately. Preached in the Third Presbyterian Church 
in East Troy, where Mr. Geo. Lenmion — a young man 
of splendid mental ability, who has since entered the 
ministry — immediately made arrangements for my 
giving a lecture there on "Men of the Nineteenth 
Century." 

"John B. Gough" formed the subject of a lecture 
I gave at Harmony Hall, Cohoes. In the Hall of the 
"Ancient Order of United Workingmen," Amsterdam, I 
repeated my lecture "Men of the Nineteenth Century." 
As the subject was well advertised, we had a very fine 
audience, and everything passed off jubilantly, with 
many handshakings. I had every reason to feel en- 
couraged, and better than all I kept drinking in the 
cold ozone sweeping over the hills of Amsterdam with a 
gusto I cannot express in words. 

I departed for Albany under somewhat pleasing 
circumstances. Fresh air and sound sleep were my 
dearest friends. These I was determined to have at all 
costs. A New York publishing house requested me, at 
an ample weekly salary, to introduce at my leisure a 
new quarterly magazine, more especially among the 
politicians of the capital. I cheerfully accepted the 
tender, and found that the field offered a new kind of 
exercise in the dry air. I succeeded in getting three or 



82 I,IFE SKETCHES 

four subscribers for the work, but I found that I was out 
of my latitude at that critical juncture of my life. A 
couple of weeks had passed, and a new enemy insidiously 
stole in to break up my serenity. 

I had always looked upon politics as a slippery 
science, but I never knew in experfence what it was till 
I entered the capital. Some twenty-six years ago Dr. 
Duryea, of Classon Avenue Presbyterian Church, Brook- 
lyn, gave me an illustration of some of its terrors. One 
day he brought up the subject of our great political men, 
and alluded to Tilden. "And who is Tilden ?" said I, 
affecting some ignorance of the name. The atrocious 
question proved a deadlock of silence for six months. 
But at the capital, from the governor down to the 
janitor, all became invisible just as soon as I thought I 
had my hand on them. Even the Hon. David B. Hill, 
when I called at the mansion at his own request, sud- 
denly metamorphosed into a tall strapping fellow like 
one of the beef -eaters of the Queen's body-guard. 

"The governor, I presume?" said I, bowing with a 
show of reverence. 

"Bedad, sir, you missed him, he's all over," said the 
man ; so he was, and so they all were. Slippery as an 
Albany politician ! Let that go into the book of American 
proverbs. The eel and the octopus are terminal ana- 
logues of those senators who go out plotting like Jero- 
boam the son of Nebat. 



A RACE FOR IvIFE 83 

The little vampire that came to suck my blood was 
anxiety. Sleep left my pillow night after night ; and I 
wrote a couple of strong letters to the publishers, telling 
them with the neatest courtesy that I didn't intend to 
be butchered that way— to be kind enough to take the 
agency out of my hands. I immediately secured Bleecker 
Hall for a lecture, "England and the United States," 
and sleep came to me as sweet as that of a child. 

" What do you propose to unfold as a main topic of 
your lecture ?" said a son of St. George to me one day 
in conversation. 

"I will more particularly take up the religious 
aspect of things, and the tendency towards centralization 
in the religious thinking of England and America in the 
next one hundred years." 

' ' I had been hoping you would take up the political 
side — we are all politicians here. For myself I already 
see two great governments in this nation — the Germanic 
and the American — divided by the Rocky Mountains. 
At any rate, your subject is a good one, but don't be 
annoyed if you should hear some hissing in the hall ; it 
is a common thing in this city. I would advise you to 
speak soothingly so as to conciliate some pot-headed 
politicians who might otherwise make it hot for you." 

"Thanks; I am not in the habit of putting myself 
in the way of offending people, or of pandering to them. 
I speak my mind, and the consequences will take care of 



84 IvIFB SKKTCHKS 

themselves. When a man speaks as a man, even in 
such a city as Albany, I am inclined to believe he will 
not be molested." 

Neither was I. The audience was fair and select, 
including representative clergymen and others — one 
journal stating next morning that were it not for Inger- 
soll at the same hour drawing the crowd to hear his 
eulogy on Conkling, I should have had a large audience 
at the hall. 

Before I left Albany I met a wriggler, and I will tell 
you how it was. I boarded near Eagle street, not far 
from Capitol park. A student of divinity, about thirty- 
five, roomed near me, who was troubled with obesity. 
We started for a pleasant walk one breezy evening, and 
I noticed that my dogmatist became tremulous and 
short-winded. He said that he was well able to keep up 
with me, and I out of respect tortured myself into a 
slower pace. But mercy, how he did shake ! Said I, 
"Why do you quiver so?" "I am all right," said he, 
"go ahead, I am studying my sermon" — one that he was 
to deliver the following Sunday. Well, I prevailed upon 
him to sit down and rest, while I looked over his 
discourse. "It's no wonder that you wriggled, my good 
fellow, going to preach a sermon on nothing but hell 
and damnation for man, — not a word about God's love, 
not a word about the loving Jesus in it. See here, 
Mr. Tomkins, do you notice all these murderers and 



A RACE FOR LIFE 85 

drunkards in society ? God has been so often represented 
as a monster, it is no wonder if his own creation fall into 
bad habits. Preach God as a being of love, and his Son 
as the Saviour of sinners, and society will be better, for 
they will see that God is a being to be loved, not to be 
hated." Brother Tomkins took the hint, and said that 
with the grace of God he would never preach a wriggling 
sermon. He was honorable enough to say that I hit the 
nail on the head that time. 

Utica was my next station, and I confess there are 
great beauties about it. Secured a furnished room, and 
made lecturing arrangements. As I am partly writing 
for the benefit of lecturers, let me say that regarding 
halls I always kept on the right side of the fence. It 
was useless to consult dignitaries ; they suggested the big 
expensive opera halls and academies. But my monitor 
said, "Get a plain, moderately priced, clean hall, so that 
on leaving and paying expenses, you may have a little 
money in your purse." Very good advice, and I fol- 
lowed it. 

"There's no earthly use," said a lawyer, "there's no 
use in lecturing; you can't get out half a dozen, you 
can't sell a ticket. Why, wasn't the great English 
Arnold lecturing in that grand hall there, and we lost 
$150 on him ?" 

' ' That doesn't affect me a particle, my dear sir. You 
selected a dear place and a high-priced lecturer. I will 



86 life; sketches 

secure a low-priced, neat little place." So I engaged. 
Sovereigns' Hall, an out-of-the-way place, somewhat, 
but I had an audience that enabled me to meet more 
than my expenses. 

Then I besieged New York Mills, three miles out, not 
a classical name, but, upon my word, quite a paradisaical 
kind of a place, where I had a well-filled house. Eambled 
around Utica, calling one day on the Eev. Mr. Sawyer, 
a great Hebrew scholar, at Whitestone, then in his 
eighty-second year, who has been long engaged in a new 
translation of the Bible. But his comments are unjust 
to himself and to the Kecord. A strong feeling of sym- 
pathy seized me for the old recluse, for he lives in an 
isolation as cold and cheerless as an iceberg in the 
northern sea. 

At New York Mills and New Hartford I lectured on 
"John Knox and John Wesley," often making my way 
home to Utica at midnight, round the hills, under the 
bearings of the Cross, in the constellation Cygnus. 
O wondrous symbol ! It united me with my family, it 
united me with the universe around, and opened up a 
nearer acquaintance with the wealth of my Creator. 

It is a few steps out to Rome, some fifteen miles, and 
my readers may laugh at me for saying so, but there is 
no use denying that the days of manly exercise are past. 
It is what I should call a pleasant little walk to Rome, 
true, somewhat tame in scenery, but there is plenty 



A RACE FOR LIFE 87 

compensation. Here I engaged the Wesley an Methodist 
Church. Preached Sunday before lecture, and proffered 
half proceeds to church at the lowest ticket of my whole 
pilgrimage. Rome is a level, quiet city — too level to be 
interesting ; and too dead at the time of my visit to show 
the least spark of energy. 

A short ride brought me to Syracuse, a great city of 
dust and excitement, containing some excellent streets 
and edifices. Here I preached two Sabbaths for the 
Rev. Mr. Becker, of the Methodist Protestant Church, 
and secured Mead's Hall, in Opera House for lecture — 
"The Religious Element in American Politics." In a 
monetary aspect this lecture was a complete failure, in 
another aspect the most profitable of the course, as it 
tested my mettle considerably. When I paid board bill 
and expenses, I found that I had but one dime in my 
pocket. I had made engagements to lecture in Rochester, 
eighty- two miles off. I therefore paid a visit to the 
great salt works, secured myself some refreshments, and 
started on my pleasant walk at two p.m. The adven- 
turous aspect of my voyage cheered me wonderfully. 

Talk about ten dollar tickets for an opera. Then it 
was worth five times ten to stand and view that great 
forest and farming land, intersected by the double four- 
track line of the Grand Central Road between Syracuse 
and Rochester. Those riding over it have no conception 
of its beauty. Smooth and clear as a billiard table— 



88 IvIFE SKETCHES 

stretching far away into the western horizon — carrying 
on its bosom countless trains of cars that, like the camels 
of the desert, bear the riches of every clime. The wealth 
of America was constantly rolling at my feet, I never 
was more interested in a work of art. Suddenly I 
seemed to have the fleetness of an Apollo, and when I 
arrived ere nightfall at Weedsport I had not the first 
sensation of weariness. 

Stopping at the house of a gentleman, and revealing 
my identity and position, I partook of a healthy meal 
after my twenty-two miles' walk. What a hearty re- 
ception I had from those heroes of the hearth, who 
pressed me to remain many days. How enlivening 
were our songs of praise to the Divine Being, how sacred 
were the emotions that filled the room as the old patriarch 
spoke with God in prayer. Then sleep soon wrapped me 
in her precious mantle. 

Next morning I walked over to Conquest, visited many 
friends, and spent a most agreeable night with Elder 
Wheat. Walked over the next day to Newark — on my 
way plunging into the Clyde at Lyons, and taking 
nothing less than a good old-fashioned swim, one of the 
best of my life. Before noon the following day I entered, 
hungry as a bear, the beautiful city of Rochester, 
which offers much diversity all the way round from the 
rocky sub-soil to the human heart. The fresh, crisp air, 
the laughing waters and lawns — the gorges of the 



A RACE FOR LIFE 89 

Genesee — and the sweet sunsets (though we may see 
these anywhere when we look for them) all gave festive- 
ness to the scene. 

Hearty greetings awaited me from some of the citizens. 
John Knox and John Wesley is a subject that in good 
hands should take like wild fire. There is much border- 
ing on the tragic and the thrilling in the life of Knox, 
and much resignation and moral grandeur in the life of 
Wesley. But only skilful hands can touch the theme. 
I suggested to my friends another subject, but they 
struck out for the reformers. 

Rochester treated me very handsomely, put a good 
handful of money in my purse, passed resolutions of 
thanks for lecture at Knights of Honor Hall — afterwards 
treated me to a grand ovation, and begged me to call again. 

And now one more hint to amateur lecturers — don't 
go reasoning like Alnaschar when you have a few dollars 
in your purse. We are all learning by experience, and I 
must post you a little. Men who use their faculties at 
the right time and place are the safeguards of society. 
What crowds I meet all the way up on the social ladder 
— who are absolutely afraid to speak as men — they are 
away down in low ruts, where conventional untruths, 
stock margins and lickerish tidbits of ceremony keep 
them dwarfed. O ye rich churches, for heaven's sweet 
sake, send healthy missionaries among our people; we 
want them more than does Africa. 



90 LIFB SKETCHES 

Determined to see Buffalo, and to make the best of 
things, I alighted at Batavia, walked through the quiet 
little town, which seemed half asleep; and there finding 
that I should have to wait three hours for car, thought 
just this way : if I remain here I shall be walking all the 
time ; I may as well walk to Corfu, ten miles, and view 
the country. So off I started, arriving long before train. 
Then to the Bev. A. Smith, of the M. P. church. 

Brother Smith met me with open arms. I really can't 
say when I spent a more pleasant time. He is a grand 
army man, and bears the marks of suffering for his 
country. Preached for him Sunday morning and evening, 
paying an afternoon visit to the pleasant little cemetery 
back of the village, and rejoicing that life opened out so 
singularly fresh and delightful after my long years^ 
illness. 

Off for Buffalo on Monday morning, bearing a letter of 
introduction which considerably cheered me, and alighted 
some seven or eight miles from the city to embrace the 
beauties of its environs. In fact I was so interested in 
my surroundings that I forgot my dear, kind monitor, 
and began to reason like Alnaschar over his basket of 
brittle ware — hence my advice. 

It was not long before the great Main street, and inter- 
secting rich avenues burst upon me, and I was very 
much rejoiced. Evening was setting in, — the clouds 
suffused with a rich crimson, and I sought refreshment 



A RACE FOR lylFK 91 

and repose. Turning down Nassau street, I was about 
entering a dining-room when my hand involuntarily 
started to my pocket. Out like lightning, I thrust it 
into another, then another — over and over again — my 
forty -seven dollars and seventy- three cents had gone 
like a vision of the night. But a sound, good sleep fitted 
me for the duties of the next day. 

Things brightened up wonderfully, more cheerfully 
than I dared anticipate, and I soon found out that I had 
work to do in Buffalo. I secured new Era Hall, in Swan 
street, corner Main, for lecture, "The Glory and Shame 
of America," and was besieged by various Christian 
people to take up Sunday preaching. My travels brought 
me over near Canal street, and Hamburg Canal, where I 
found a Christian mission church, struggling to hold up 
its head, under circumstances so humiliating that I fell 
into sympathy with the work at once. There were 
women of spotless integrity, of high families, carrying on 
the work of the Lord amidst the jeers and venom of the 
most depraved human beings that have ever lived. 

Yet my life in this city was tempered by very pleasant 
experiences. Making my house in Division street, not 
far from Main, while I remained and preached at the 
mission, I was brought daily into contact with all shades 
of men. President Cleveland was in for a large share of 
objurgation, and the tattle at the tea tables rang upon 
him with severity. 



92 LIFE SKETCHES 

' ' Why all this clatter about Cleveland ?" said I, sick 
of the conversation. 

' ' Don't you know you're in his training-school, and 
what can you expect from a place of such low associa- 
tions ?" 

Now I do fight shy of these political extremists, but I 
spoke good words for the President. I say before the 
world, all the more honor to this man Cleveland, who 
could pass through such scenes, and yet claim the 
suffrages of the American people. 

My boarding house was a quiet, unpretentious, little 
edifice, kept by a carpenter, a far-seeing Scotchman, 
possessing some grand traits. His wife was a model 
Christian woman— I may say ultra Christian for the 
atmosphere in which she moved. She took the Bible as 
her counsel; and while I have passed through varied 
grades of society, I must honestly say that her life 
formed a picture to be hung up in the memory far above 
all the others. Arduous trials surrounded her, but no 
matter how hard the strain, she sang out from the ful- 
ness of her heart she should bear all things for the sake 
of Him who made her happy. 

On the 9th of August I gave my address, " The Glory 
and Shame of America," as illustrated in the church, 
home, legislation, literature and manners of the people. 
There was much to be said, and I could but barely glance 
at the material that opened before me. There was a 
creditable audience, and the best attention prevailed. 



A RACE FOR LIFE 93 

"Would you be kind enough to give us an address," 
said a lady of the mission at the close, ' 'at a price that 
will enable many of the poorer class to come out and 
hear you ? Take any subject you please, and I am sure 
that you will have a house full." 

Now what subject could I take in view of such a 
question ? Nor would I dare to leave Buffalo without 
some public expression of thanks to that sisterhood who 
place themselves in the very jaws of death to save the 
fallen. Neither would I pay compliment to them without 
arraigning ourselves. Our moral cowardice in this age 
is absolutely sickening in its repulsiveness. Living 
constantly in tainted air, one loses the sense of its danger. 
I therefore took up the subject, "Woman's Tribute to 
Christianity," in irregular four line hexameters of ninety 
stanzas, giving due apostrophe to woman for what she 
has done in speeding the temperance reformation, and in 
educating the race to the virtues of resignation, patience, 
and affection. In this poem I did not fail to cast very 
severe reflections upon our own sex for the low ambitions 
which so often seize us in our golden opportunities. 

It was a scathing arraignment, but it represented a 
state of things that is too true. There is a large class in 
Buffalo — like in all our large cities — of poor, ignorant, 
earnest, Christian people, who know that they are slighted 
by the stronger churches : while at the same time it may 
be admitted that in the grace of Christian knowledge 



94 IvIFE SKETCHES 

they are often in advance of our richer friends. To some 
of those people the Salvation army offers good work; 
others have no Christian home but at their own firesides ; 
there is no minister or missionary who calls upon them 
or cares about them, and thus there is a wall of estrange- 
ment rising between them and the church — they are 
honest, and simple, and God-fearing, and yet they are 
strangers in their own land. 

Let me pass on. I grasped my pen, sat down with 
very solemn reflections one Sunday afternoon to frame 
this " Woman's Tribute." It was on the eve of completion 
the following Tuesday, when a woman rapped at the 
door desiring a few printed copies. We were not rich 
enough for that ; but the sisters and those interested in 
the Mission showed much enthusiasm, and when the 
evening came for delivery there was a very promiscuous 
gathering. 

I became warmed and excited as I advanced, and as I 
read the lines — 

We have entered tlie pulpit— God's message beside us, 

To counsel our sister to fly from disgrace ; 
But, alas ! she too often has cause to deride us. 

And throw back the taunt in our pharisee face— 

"That's right"—" Give it 'em hot"— " God bless you"— 
came from all quarters of the room. 

Many pleasant hours I spent with Kev. Thomas Carr, 
a good, decent Irish Episcopal minister, author of a small, 



A RACE FOR LIFE 95 

ably-written treatise, a vindication of the Episcopal 
church against the charge of holding the ' 'Stiff est Calvin- 
ism" in her Thirty -nine Articles. An old bachelor, in 
his seventieth year — living alone, cooking his own meals 
— out of sympathy I called on him, and the time flew too 
rapidly as we opened many a theme. Dear old fellow ! 
his eyes were wet with tears as we parted, perhaps, for 
the last time in this world. 

Mr. Evans, an old-time printer, in Washington street, 
was another favorite I picked up. I am proud of my old 
profession. " Now," said I, " Mr. Evans, I have written 
some lines, called The Poet, and I should like to put 
them in type." 

" O no, don't think of that, I will do them up in fine 
style. Don't soil your fingers." 

"Now," said I, laughing outright, "is it any wonder 
we preachers are made the laughing stock of the public, 
when we become so proud that we can't touch type, 
blacken our boots, or button our coats ?" 

Friend Evans had to cave in to my argument, and I 
set up the poem, beginning 

He walks with men, and yet be is a king, 

and one of these days you will be reading it. Oh, I do 
from my very soul abhor those individuals, be they men 
or women, who sneer with pompous strides at the nice 
little bridge that at a critical time in life so nicely carried 
them over. 

I have watched Buffalo's crowds day after day with 



96 LIFE SKETCHES 

undiminished interest. What beautiful pictures of life 
the passing throngs furnish to those who look for pictures. 
And he who can see into the depths of the painting will 
not be censorious in his estimate, since he is in group 
with the others, and is just as odd and singular as any 
of the rest. 

From appearances I should like to say a word in favor 
of street discipline . Order prevailed, indicative of good 
police surveillance. In fact I promenaded in a pretty 
lively manner for some seven weeks those busy streets, 
and met little or no disturbance. Life was very enjoy- 
able, the hot waves being tempered with currents of 
cool air from Lake Erie. 

So much for the positive side, and now for the negative. 
The first and the best thing Buffalo can do is to get rid 
of that Hamburg Canal. I take care that no profanity 
shall be allowed in my presence. I have a high regard 
for the sacred office: but if any man should ask me 
whether such a place as hell could be found on this earth, 
and where, I should say, " Certainly, in Buffalo." 

At the same time I would discriminate between the 
respectable one of Milton, where Satan exclaims, ' 'Better 
to reign in hell, than serve in heaven." In that grandest 
of all poems, where Satan is pictured as coursing the 
universe hunting out the blissful pair, the reader can 
clearly see that boiling seas, walls of brimstone, and 
showers of dynamite if you will, would not daunt him a 



A RACE FOR LIFE 97 

particle ; but doubtlessly a place proportionably like the 
Hamburg Canal would make him swear so as to frighten 
his legions, drive his blazing fingers up to his nostrils, 
and cry out — ^to use the more expressive language of 
poetry : 

O Death, O Furies ! what assails my nose ? 

Well I'll be damned ten thousand times and more 

Before I touch this pottage. 

Now, Buffalo, this is enough. Gret rid of that canal, 
and save your credit before the nations ; save your noble- 
hearted Christian women from being sacrificed on such 
frightful altars ; then plant gardens of roses on the soil 
that their fragrance may blot out the past forever, and 
the rising generation may call you blessed. 

My hay fever had completely disappeared in that 
pleasant adventure of eight months, and a walk of over 
three thousand miles. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CRITICISM AND COMMON SENSE. 

Nature has furnished me with a large amount of in- 
dependence, or what might be called a spirit of freedom 
and fair play. No sooner did I see my own faculties 
developing, than I found myself entering arenas where 
prejudices and jealousies like massive mountains lay ahead 
of me. Could I go through their midst without breathing 
their atmosphere and assimilating something ot their 
constitution ? No, it must not be. I am here but as a 
traveler; and nothing fills me with greater wonder than 
the plexus of human minds around me, all representative 
of certain antecedent phenomena which have invariably 
defied the keenest generalization for any satisfactory 
solution. 

The styles which characterize the literature of our best 
thinkers are never modelled on those of others. These 
speak a language of their own, which they follow as 
naturally and as easily as the air they breathe. In this 
high realm the vagaries of jealousy rarely enter ; there 
is a communion of soul which settles as a benediction, 
and which purifies and ennobles the human heart to a 
greater extent than we can ever estimate. The versatility 
of DeQuincey, the symmetry of Addison, the grandeur 



CRITICISM AND COMMON SENSE 99 

of Washington Irving typify a wealth and personality 
of which they themselves never could have been conscious. 

V/hen I see a man's individuality grandly marked, I 
must unfold it immediately for the general good, or bear 
some tremendous thumping from that conscience which 
God has given me. Now, I dopJt care about being 
thrashed in that peculiar way ; for I have told my people 
from the pulpit more than once that I would prefer even 
to have my ears boxed in the streets in broad daylight 
than bear the terrible whip of conscience for neglected 
duties. So you see, reader, there is a little difference 
between myself and some others. Thousands of great 
men cry out, "Pshaw for conscience ! What does Mrs. 
Grundy say? — that's the thing." Well, that's not the 
thing for me. 

In the year 1863 I had an opportunity of meeting 
Ralph Waldo Emerson in Montreal, when he gave a 
lecture under the patronage of the Mercantile Library 
Association. Though the meeting had been well adver- 
tised, and Emerson well paid for his services, the audience 
was so slim as to make his friends and admirers unhappy. 
He himself seemed out of sorts,— whether it was the poor 
turn out or whether he had a delicacy regarding the 
work, I could never fathom. There was great strength 
in his thought, but great weakness in his utterance. 

And yet there was something so charming and beauti- 
ful about that man that is well worth description. I 
iL.of C. 



loo LIFE SKETCHES 

merely introduce his name here to show that even such 
a man as Emerson makes mistakes sometimes. ''Never 
read any book that is not a year old," said he, in his 
three axioms regarding the reading of good books. Emer- 
son himself was an instance that not the mighty crowd 
around him, but the man of genius found him out and 
read him before his printed pages were dry. It is the 
prerogative of genius to find out whether a book is worth 
reading, and to wait not a year, nor a month, nor a day, 
but to seize the glowing ingots of the author's mind im- 
mediately, and present their wealth before the people. 

I see that Sir John Lubbock copies this phrase of Emer- 
son without seeing the fallacy of it. But I have a bone 
to pick with Sir John and other equally excellent writers. 
There is a very unhealthy tendency amongst literary 
men in our day to treasure up in the memory extracts 
from the large field of literature, and then drop them 
into their own writings as quotations from So-and-so 
without tracing them to their authors. The consequence 
is that the quotation is adulterated, and the author mis- 
quoted. For instance here, in the "Pleasures of Life," 
Sir John Lubbock gives the extract : 

" How charming is divine philosophy ! 
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, 
But musical as is Apollo's lute," 

as from Shakespeare, when most readers know better — 
that it is from Milton's "Comus." And such a blunder 
passing at the head of a chapter seems inexplicable. 



CRITICISM AND COMMON SENSE loi 

A beautiful -looking small 12mo volume, well printed 
on fine thick paper — and a choice morceau of thought, 
was put into my hands one evening at a friend's house. 
In turning over the pages rapidly I found no less than 
four extracts at the head of chapters far off from their 
authors — two from Milton attributed to Shakespeare, one 
from Dry den to Shelley, and one from Pope to Byron. 
With all its splendid printing I threw down the volume 
in disgust, and have been studying over and over again 
how the error might be rectified. 

The responsibility in all these cases rests upon the 
author. I have come across instances where the author 
of the volume leaves the quotation authority to the proof- 
reader. This is very unjust ; for the department of care- 
ful proofreading is perhaps the most laborious of all work 
in book printing. The reader is rarely thanked for his 
trouble, and he is scourged for his unavoidable errors. 
The author or compiler should invariably take time to 
look after his own extracts. 

A case in point will show that there is something dis- 
creditable in trusting to the memory passages which are 
called for in the production of standard works. When 
the first part of the great Oxford Dictionary under the 
editorship of Prof. Murray appeared a few years ago, I 
soon found out that many of those who had been for 
years selecting quotations, depended too much on their 
memory ; and the consequence was that Milton, Dryden, 



I02 LIFE SKETCHES 

Pope, Swift, Gray, and a host of others were imperfectly 
rendered in the quotation or book. Through the kind- 
ness of Messrs. MacMillan, publishers, 1 wrote to Prof. 
March, then American editor, and received his hearty 
thanks, with a hope that I might be able to continue my 
labor on the dictionary. In one of his letters he states, 
' ' Should we publish Language^ we shall have a sort of 
Dictionary Department ; and we should be glad to print 
your corrections in it as an example to others, and an 
invitation to more examination." I regretted very 
much that I had not the time to follow it up. Of course 
mistakes will occur in a work of such magnitude; but 
there is sufficient time to do ample justice; and I trust 
that the most rigid scrutiny will be bestowed on that 
great work which is being welcomed with such hearty 
regard by the best scholarship of the English speaking 
nations. 

A well known New York house published a few years ago 
a popular English encyclopedia, with American additions, 
in six volumes. I desired a copy at the time, and one 
day glanced for about half an hour at the specimen. I 
did not feel satisfied, and wrote to the publisher, in sub- 
stance asking him whether he thought it just to his own 
interest as publisher as well as that of the buyer to present 
his work before the public literally crowded with faults 
of all kinds ; and stated that it would not take long to 
find fifty thousand errors in the volumes, that should by 



CRITICISM AND COMMON SENSE 103 

all means be corrected. To this I received no reply. A 
friend, also a publisher in New York, urged me to send 
a copy of my letter to the New York Tribune, which 
would surely through that channel elicit some response. 
My sensitive nature alone prevented me. I saw there 
was some little excitement ahead, and some hot temper 
that might not prove beneficial to either, so I dropped 
the matter. 

Well I look at it just this way. When a hardworking 
healthy man goes to the market to buy good meat and 
potatoes for his dinner, the law protects him in his efforts 
to get good material; and the man who will buy the 
poorest potatoes, and cry out in selling them that they 
are the best, is a fraud, and the law is bound to censure 
him. Now there is some relevancy in these two cases, 
and there is no use in getting mad over it. • A man who 
buys a book as a play -toy will have no cause to grumble 
at the price put upon it, or the maculae upon its pages. 
But it is vastly different with the cultured mind ; and a 
book diseased with the most culpable errors — ^like diseased 
meat in the market — betokens the presence in many cases 
of fraudulent dealing which demands legal interference, 
and this right should be strenuously insisted upon. 

A pleasant note of introduction a few years since gave 
me hearty welcome to the home of Dr. John Miller of 
Princeton, where I spent many happy hours. His new 
translation from the Hebrew of the Proverbs of Solomon 



I04 I.IFB SKETCHES 

— a work of massive erudition and critical exegesis — had 
just arrived from the publishers ; and it is safe to say- 
that the next century with the acutest scholarship will 
not surpass it. On leaving him the next morning he 
placed a volume "Fetich in Theology" in my hands. 
This little treatise, as well as all his productions, makes 
a man think— the Doctor knew well that the highest 
office of an educator is to make men think and question. 
The great majority of books that leave our presses show 
the very reverse of this — they weaken and stultify the 
argumentative powers, because they offer no pasture 
ground for the understanding. And it will be found 
after some examination, that, with but few exceptions, 
the great mass of novel reading withers and degenerates 
the mind, thereby leaving it open to the inroads of 
passion, and the thousand other eventualities which 
culminate in insanity, suicide, or the leprosy of drunken- 
ness. In one word, the strength which dignifies the will 
power is lost, and there is nothing left to fill its place. 

It is with great pleasure therefore that I look into the 
writings of such a man as Dr. Miller. The conciseness 
and point of his periods, balanced with a wit that carries 
with it the aroma of ancient as well as modern civiliza- 
tions; and interspersed with a tincture of cheerfulness 
and urbanity — added to a ready prehensile faculty of 
ingrafting which is constantly budding into new creations 
— all these separate him from ordinary thinkers as a 



CRITICISM AND COMMON SENSE 105 

type of the noblest school of cultured, unfettered minds. 
Of his theology I will only say that it is to be much re- 
gretted that scholars too often show an uneasy bias of 
feeling by a silence which they know is base, but which 
they imagine their environment calls them to sanction. 
The literary worth of a man should always be acknowl- 
edged as apart from his creed : while the latter should 
never be construed by the community as a plea for for- 
feiting the sacred instincts of home and society. Those 
large minds who feed us with the best pabulum have 
often to pass through the most trying ordeals. The 
doctrine of discrete degrees could never be better illus- 
trated than in just such cases. We are constantly 
viewing certain minds from our own platform, instead 
of theirs : when all our learning, insight and observation 
will never allow us to ascend the scaffolding where 
Nature has placed them. 

It is in place here to speak of some of the productions 
of a very near relative of the doctor, whom, for the grace- 
fulness of his diction, and the weird grandeur of his 
images in the realm of verse, I look upon in some sense 
as one of the ablest poets of the nineteenth century. 
Whatever may be said regarding this literary celebrity, 
the fundamental principles of honor, which cling to 
noble souls as the sap to the tree, run out immediately 
for his defence on the ground that he has been misunder- 
stood and misinterpreted by a large throng who view 



io6 LIFE SKETCHES 

him altogether outside of his plane of genius. In 
"Silence," one of his first poems, the Rev. Miller 
Hageman presents to the world the fecundity and pov^^er 
of a superior mind in mastering language and adroitly 
drawing it within the orbit of his vision so as to make it 
pay ready obeisance to the subject before him. The 
thrilling severity of the "Divine Malignity" grasps in 
small compass, but in striking aphoristic phrase (and 
this is where the poets often claim advantage) a great 
deal that will be syllabled very frequently in the next 
fifty years, and tend not a little to precipitate that re- 
vulsion of feeling against certain dogmatic beliefs which 
is already taking deep hold of the public mind. 
"Liberty" is a magnificent poem, teeming with the 
richest truths, embellished and chiseled in the choicest 
language, which is destined to a noble future ; while his 
"Bird Songs" contain some of the neatest imitations of 
nature ever known. In this line he has found his real 
forte ; and as this argues genius of a high order, it is to 
be hoped that he may be enabled to prosecute his work 
with satisfaction to himself as well as to the public. 

A gentleman, perhaps of as reticent and unassuming a 
nature as may be found in this broad world. Dr. John D. 
Ross, I first met in 1882. This man comes from the 
land of the heather — dear old Scotland — where he was 
born in 1853. I soon gleaned from his writings that 
for the little time he was to live in the world he was. 



CRITICISM AND COMMON SENSE 107 

determined to do some good ; and, with an impartiality 
rare and wonderful, he goes around picking out the 
jewels hidden in a man's innermost soul — unseen, un- 
known till the eye of genius seeks kinship, and finds it ; 
and then brings them up in the lustre of the sunlight, 
where the world can admire and love them. He is a 
man with perhaps as good a substratum of keen literary 
sense as any writer of our day, and is carving out a 
pathway that, while it will tend to make men happier, 
will also prevent feuds and jealousies that so often 
degrade the literary forum. Many of our readers have 
become familiar with his peculiar method of review^ 
seeking the beautiful as his first consideration. In the 
domain of poetry he has been singularly felicitous in 
this respect, as his writings on Robert Burns, and the 
Scottish poets of America testify. 

Events led me recently in the society of Prof. Sedgwick, 
Winfield, L. I., one of our ablest astronomers. I was 
well aware that the professor had been misunderstood 
by many, who pictured him as being strongly opposed 
to the essential principles of the Christian religion. Noth- 
ing could be farther from the truth. The doctor is noted 
for a devoutness of feeling, and a tenderness of Christian 
belief that won my highest regard. He is an acute 
classical scholar, a great reader of the Greek Testament, 
and one in whose society many clergymen could glean a 
great deal regarding the useful and the beautiful. 



io8 LIFE SKETCHES 

Besides this, the doctor has been engaged for many 
years in what may be called one of the grandest under- 
takings of our age. And this is the ' ' Illustrated Family 
Bible," in twenty volumes, with some twenty thousand 
of the choicest engravings, steel and copperplate, to 
illustrate the text. I have been looking over some three 
or four volumes, and find that the doctor's grasp is no 
less exegetical than historical ; his faculty of insight is 
keen and adaptive; his happy manner of selection 
throws such light in the path of the reader, that the 
attention is relieved and instructed at the same time. 
This great work, as an heirloom to his children, cannot 
fail of meeting with a large meed of praise from the 
public. The subtle principle of genius is manifest 
throughout. 



CHAPTER IX. 

HEALTH AND EXERCISE. 

There is a tremendous amount of uncheerfulness 
afloat, so don't blame me if I prescribe a little in this 
chapter. A laugh is better than a sigh in such trying 
and sickly times. I do not favor the long-faced, styptic 
religion that gives a man a vinegar aspect all his life. 

No, life needs expansion, humor and gayety. Grip, 
pneumonia, and kidney disease are running after us like 
fiends, and I meet so many men and women that look 
as if they had been packed away in barrels of alcohol. 
It's a great mistake. You say it's hard to keep in good 
humor when the back of your head is on fire, your lungs 
clogged up, and a cough setting in to break you in pieces. 

Yes, I say that even then you must keep in good 
spirits. What are you here for ? I look back, and it is 
astonishing to see how my friends have been going. 
Ministers, editors, merchants, bakers, butchers, artisans 
have been dropping off like leaves in a hurricane. You 
say that I am the strangest man living that I don't feel 
it. I will not tell a falsehood over it either. I look over 
the barren waste so lately filled with wealth of life and 
enjoyment, and I am not disappointed. I came here 



no LIFE SKETCHES 

but as a visitor, and will soon join the army of the de- 
parted. With the wonderful array of faculties that God 
has given man it is certainly our own fault if we do not 
keep our spirits in readiness, and our wings plumed for 
the flight. And, as I said before, the best way to do this 
is to wrap a robe of cheerfulness and honesty around 
our natures, and go through the conflict as true 
courageous men and women for the little time we re- 
main here. 

Moral courage and heroism are rare in this world after 
a man wades in the sea of physical affliction. People 
lose heart, lose confidence at the very time of life when 
it is most necessary to have them. There have been 
hours in your existence when you have been seated at a 
great feast where course followed course, and tempting 
dishes and viands and fruits lay waiting to appease your 
appetite, and you have said, ' ' Isn't this delightful ? It 
is worth living to taste all this." Well, this will give 
you some idea of my position when I go out on my long 
isolated walks in the vast amphitheatre of being. Every- 
thing is aflame with song, majesty and beauty. Living 
here in the concrete, I then associate with the infinite 
and the sublime. Man at length has disappeared, and 
left me alone with Nature. When the clouds drop their 
fatness upon the earth I walk subdued in the presence 
of such divine beneficence, and when the stars burn in 
their azure depths I am aware that I am a spectator in 



HEALTH AND BXERCISK iii 

their galleries, and realize with much enjoyment my 
relation to them. 

Since the genera of gambling and pool, and church 
lotteries, and a thousand other queer things have come 
into fashion; and men and women walk with their fingers 
with a deftness that has never been known in history ; 
and strange swellings and dropsies lay hold of our lower 
limbs, that we can't walk a mile without screaming with 
pain, and at fifty years are worn out, and white-haired 
and laggard as if we were a hundred — all these to me 
are some of the mysteries of this wonderful time. Gosh, 
it does seem that I don't belong to this planet anyway. 
When Winter comes, dear, cold heart, I feel like dipping 
my head with ecstacy in her first snow-bank; but to see 
most of my neighbors, how they do scamper off, helter- 
skelter, for a whiskey sour, shouting with the jim-jams, 
or swearing like troopers, and I singing for joy — now, 
what does it all mean ? It just means partly this, that 
I am bound to take my Father's goods as he sends them, 
and trust that my many readers are trying to do the 
same. 

Now regarding physical exercise, I have little sym- 
pathy with those brethren of my own kin who adopt 
horse-riding and shooting ducks as something marvel- 
lous. Why don't they walk on their own pins, instead 
of begging horses to carry them ? What a treat I would 
have had on that smooth walk between Syracuse and 



112 LIFE SKETCHES 

Kochester had some of those gay, reverend seigniors 
been beside me ! What a peripatetic school we might 
have organized, where the spirit of Socrates would not 
hesitate to meet, in our converse on God, nature and 
man ! Let me be plain in saying a thing here which I 
trust teachers and all ministers will take to heart. 

Thinking is stimulated wonderfully by pedestrian 
exercise in a high gale. It doesn't matter from what 
point of the compass : the adage, ' ' an east wind is 
neither good for man nor beast" is all bosh. Clergy- 
men, particularly, should be good walkers till eighty 
years of age. Ten miles a day is excellent for a sickly 
man ; twenty miles a day is fair for a healthy man ; and 
twenty-five to thirty miles a day may be called a good 
walk. 

I must confess that I don't like to be speaking all the 
time on laws of health. But really it can't be helped as 
long as people try to make out that this world is an 
hospital. This world, my dear reader, is a paradise. 
And as long as the crowd allows itself to be swamped 
by tides of corruption, and human bodies and souls are 
tossed on its billows as they were in the Johnstown flood, 
man, eaten up by avarice, passion, and prejudice, is 
sure to be miserable. 

My advent in missionary work in the rocky Laurentian 
region of Grenville, Canada, set me at my wits' end how 
to clamber up the cliffs and visit the people. I was 



HEALTH AND EXERCISE 113 

studying the dietetic part of the plan, when a plain, 
old-fashioned Scotch woman said to me one day: " You 
can't live here. Bless you, it would kill you in a week 
to try to climb these hills like our last minister. Why, 
he thought nothing of visiting ten families a day; he 
had legs like a horse." 

"Don't be afraid. I see it's no joke — but look out; 
I didn't come to sleep my life here — I'll be able for it." 

I said little, but resorted to a strong plain diet, partly 
to invigorate and purge the whole system, and incorporate 
a new anatomy. At the foot of a pretty steep hill one 
day — about the eighth of a mile — I looked away up ; it 
did seem pretty hard to travel, especially as I had to 
meet fully a dozen or more such in a day. I sat down 
on a knoll for a few moments, and meditated. I had a 
good appetite — that was all right. I knew something of 
deep breathing, but not enough. I wanted purchase 
power in the lungs; how was I to get it ? This very sum- 
mer and very place must decide, said I, or I must give 
up the ship. That very day I solved the riddle; and now 
let me explain it, so that the reader may understand me, 
and become a stronger and a wiser man — not forgetting 
my lady readers by all means. 

I found that this purchase power could only be secured 
by expanding the lungs — in taking deep inspirations 
moderately fast through the nostrils, and arriving at a 
high pitch, make another tremendous effort, and inhale 



114 UFB SKETCHES 

still deeper. Now you see I would have little advantage 
were I to walk slowly with this reserved power ; there- 
fore I started to run on a pretty rapid gait, holding in 
my breath just as long as nature would permit — then 
emitting it, not too rapidly ; I would then walk, but not 
fail to keep up the method of deep inspiration. 

I found that the use of this advantage every succeed- 
ing day gave new advantages, so that in very few weeks 
I was astonished to see myself sailing along more rapidly 
over rocks and fences than even my predecessors. The 
application I should like to make is this : 

When you find a difficulty in ascending many — say 
eight or nine — flights of stairs, before you start take a 
veiy deep inhalation of the pure outside air (I would 
never encourage indoor deep inhalation) — then run 
rapidly up three or four stories before you exhale the 
air; the work is half done: then go leisurely, and on 
arriving at the summit you are not weary. Look at the 
others how jaded and out of breath they are. You 
mounted just as many stories as they ; but they appar- 
ently did twice your work, because they knew nothing 
of the secret of reserving energy. 

An illustration here will be in place. One day in 
March I started out on foot to cross Lake Ontario, near 
Kingston, where it is but three miles wide. The ice was 
like a moth-eaten garment full of holes. Before a mile's 
travel I was convinced of the fearful hazard on all sides 



HEALTH AND EXERCISE 115 

of me. Slender, treacherous ice in places gave way in a 
moment, and before I could extract one foot, down would 
go the other. The chance lay in the good spots, but the 
eye is constantly deceived here. On occasions a speedy 
leap would place me on firm ice, but when it came to 
making four or five leaps without a moment's inter- 
mission, — not alternate steps, but leaps — nature prompted 
me to use all the elasticity possible, and deal it out care- 
fully in just such an emergency. When I look back on 
that day far from any human hand, I sometimes think 
how many persons would have gone down in the depths 
for the want of a knowledge of this kind, v/hich, with all 
its dangers, made it appear to me little more than an 
ordinary adventure. 

In my younger years I wrought for a long time on the 
New York Evening Post, where hundreds of times I met 
the poet Bryant. On one post-prandial occasion I re- 
member of a gentleman calling on him whose face was 
absolutely clothed with laughter. This was Oliver 
Wendell Holmes. After a little while came in another, 
whose features bore the marks of deep thought. I could 
not trace this man, though I carried the impression that 
he was Emerson the philosopher, whom I was fortunate 
enough to meet some years after. 

Holmes gave expression to some thought that set them 
all laughing. "Well, gentlemen," said Bryant, "it 
seems to me that with careful and sufficient exercise of 



ii6 IvlFK SKETCHES 

the feet as well as of the mind man ought to live one 

hundred years." 

Bryant to the very last carried about with him the 
agility of a young man, and were it not for some indis- 
cretion in remaining bareheaded on a public occasion in 
the burning sun, he might have turned one hundred 
years. 

Don't laugh when I tell you that I slipped near my own 
door on a bit of ice eighteen years ago, and sustained a 
severe compound fracture of the right arm— the wrist 
bone was broken, and the radius partly injured. It was 
horrible to contemplate as my physician set the arm. 
The agony was frightful, and through the night I tore 
Oif the bandages. Being reset the next morning — ' 'Now, " 
said the doctor, ' ' don't stir out of the house for a week 
or two, or the consequences may be very serious." The 
January weather was intensely frosty. I stayed in the 
house one day — then out with my arm in a sling — trav- 
elling, drinking deeply the cold, frosty air. Day after 
day I often took a very pleasant walk between meals of 
twelve miles, and as I inhaled the deep, cold air, I felt a 
strange vibration running all the way through the broken 
arm. What could it be ? What but this that the pure, 
clear atmosphere was giving me new blood just as well 
as the food at my home table. I wasn't afraid to test 
nature, and she cheerfully carried me to safety with 
astonishing swiftness. 



HEALTH AND EXERCISE 117 

September sixteenth, 1901, was a memorable day in 
my calendar. A strange lethargy remained in my right 
leg above the knee, the result of the grip in March. Two 
months after, my physician said, "walk but about two 
miles at a time till the fall weather, when you may in- 
crease the energy." I would not dare to act a couple of 
days on such suggestion ; I should certainly lose the use 
of my leg. The most intense exercise only gave me 
relief — sixteen and eighteen miles walk a day gave me 
rest and made me sleep. The numbness remained, but I 
did not worry over it and run after oils, lotions and 
turpentine. So on the above date I said to my wife, " I 
must see what is the matter with my leg, even if I drop 
on the street," and went out for a five mile walk before 
dinner. In the afternoon I walked down to Twenty-third 
street ferry, nearly four miles, crossed the ferry, walked 
about a mile and a half to Eighth ave., took the Elevated 
to 155th street, then walked nine miles to Yonkers. Had 
a light tea ; after which I addressed the Salvation Army, 
where I spent an agreeable hour; and at ten o'clock, 
with as much freshness as if I had just risen from my 
bed, started on my pleasant walk. No one can conceive 
my happiness. Few can imagine the benefit of such a 
school of education. On I advanced, quietly, pleasantly, 
all the way to my residence in Madison street, near 
Central avenue, but a little way from East New York — 
making about twenty-three miles after leaving the 



ii8 UFE SKETCHES 

Salvation Army, or about forty -two and a half miles for 
one day. Of course, my arrival home at three m the 
mornipg made things for all the world look like Mr. 
Caudle's house when the facts came out. ' ' A broken 
leg, wasted frame and chronic disease" were laid at my 
door. ''No,'' said I, "I have been testing my leg." I 
lay down and slept nine hours. And, would you believe 
it, on waking the numbness had nearly gone. It was 
just as if Nature had said, ' ' This man is a hero ; I will 
let him live a little longer." 

Learn to welcome the weather — that's your business. 
I do not suppose that one of my readers is possessed of 
as weak, skeleton-hollowed a chest as I have. A blow 
from a child would put an end to my fleshly existence. 
But Horace never enjoyed himself more heartily over 
his Falernian, than I in blasts of cold air. For I am 
determined, at any rate, to fill up these lungs with the 
aura of Nature's wines. So when a cold spell suddenly 
meets us, I rush into it with extraordinary delight, in- 
haling it deeply and long, walking several miles before 
my dinner, following it up while the cold lasts. And the 
way that that cold air extracts the rheum, clears the 
lungs, relieves the kidneys, braces up the system and 
gives fifty per cent, new vitality — just think of it, and 
after having had pneumonia, too. 

The grand thing is to keep the chest well covered ; shut 
the mouth rigidly, and inhale deeply the clear, fresh air. 



HEALTH AND EXERCISE 119 

Be active, intenselj active, nor fall asleep as some men 
do on the street. Bat sleep at home long and happy as 
a babe. The great secret of health in cold weather is in 
generating animal heat; energy and long, deep inspira- 
tion is best for this. Seek the hi^est ground possible, 
and, unlike those loonies who cany up bags of dust in 
the air to produce rain, strive to invent something that 
win produce a frosty snow-fall over large areas, and, as 
the wild wind sweeps over it, there's nothing in the cal- 
endar of champagnes to equal it. 

Men may talk as they please about the advantages of 
place or money, but when I get near them, and feel for 
their inner emotions, their cry invariably is, Give me 
health, that i? wcnh more than all. Oh, give me my 
health! 

Let me dose with a pleasant incidrait of my long walk. 
I was >«Dme thirteen or fourteen miles from Bochester, 
when I called at a residence for a pleasant g^ass of water. 
But my reception was something si]9erb. Some form- 
alities passed, the greatest courtesy was proftered; when 
my host remarked, "Might I ask, sir, are yon Dr. 
Talmage f * The mistake had been made more than once 
before. "No, sir; I am only a plain, simple oomitry- 
man."' But he was not satisfied; for after a while the 
lady of the house came into the room. ' ' You will excuse 
me, I hope,^^ she said, *' but I have just been reading Dr. 
Tahnage's sermon, and you speak just like him. Tell 



I20 LIFE SKKTCHES 

me, please, are you Dr. Talmage?^' "No, my dear 
friends ; but I may tell you that I have the pleasure of 
knowing the doctor, and I am sure that he will laugh 
when I tell him of this incident." Well, they begged me 
to take old Tom, sherry, etc. ; all of which I declined. 

And now, reader, I will give from my experience 
some — 

RULES FOR WALKING AND BREATHING. 

For prolonged exertion and the advantages offered as 

a preventive of disease, deep abdominal breathing 

should be followed. 
Do not forget that principles of health demand that we 

should breathe through the nostrils, and not through 

the mouth. Teach your children this. 
In taking long walks, commence with the long breath ; 

nature will prompt you to continue it. 
Commence walking exercise with a fair lively gait, or 

you will soon find yourself weary. 
A long walk at the dinner hour may be followed with 

advantage, with a light meal. 
See that your clothing is sufficiently loose to give perfect 

ease in walking. 
Eating gently some delicious biscuit in your long walk 

will prove beneficial. 
Persons habituated throughout to active exercise, such 

as walking, who desire to change to slower methods, 

should be careful in studying the necessary gradations 



HBAIvTH AND EXERCISE 121 

of life, so as to give nature fair play in her way of 
dictation. 

There is a great mine of wealth and truth in the fact that 
you may walk a couple of miles, and feel weary ; but 
go right on, breathing deeply, and at eight or ten miles 
you seem to have the strength of a giant. 

Should large quantities of mucus gather, and a headache 
set in, do not be afraid, but take remarkably deep 
nasal inspirations, then spasmodically eject the mucus ; 
by degrees you will be relieved. Better than other 
medicine a thousand times. 

To keep the health well balanced, a man of sedentary 
occupation should walk eight or ten miles a day ; while 
a man of active business is doing work equivalent to 
fifteen or eighteen miles a day. 

Exposure to cold, blustering weather may be experienced 
with much enthusiasm and benefit. 

People that are naturally lethargic may have to struggle 
hard to find this reserved energy ; but let them perse- 
vere. Nature will not disappoint them. 

If obliged to put up with foul air for long periods, seek 
the bracing clear air twice a day, inspiring deeply. 

On leaving ill- ventilated rooms, first expire deeply, then 
inspire deeply and often. 

In occupations where the air is constantly foul, seek your 
spare moments in deep breathing of pure air, even if 
you eat your lunch on the highway. 



122 LIFE SKETCHES 

The deep nasal inspiration of pure cold air is probably 
the best tonic ever given to man. 

The voice acquires rotundity, resonance and ease, from 
this practice. 

While the lungs should be active, don't inspire wildly. 

If unavoidably placed in a draught near a window, in- 
spire deeply if air is pure. 

There is no use denying the fact that if one is necessitated 
to sit in a draught of southern or eastern air in winter^ 
even near a window, if he breathe very deeply, and 
the air be pure, he will rarely catch cold. I have tried 
it hundreds of times, and know whereof I speak. Of 
course the more the window be opened in these cases 
the better. It is the small draught that is to be dis- 
couraged. 

Never venture to take deep inspirations in any room or 
locality where the air is foul. 

For asthma and all tight or congested breathing, practice 
in the well hours deep breathing in the coolest dry air 
possible, and the disease will disappear. 

Looking at the disadvantage of a bad asthma, it must be 
admitted that it will take more heroism at times in our 
endeavor to save life than in nearly anything we can 
undertake in this world. To save ourselves from the 
plague of asthma, we must fortify ourselves in those 
intervals of weeks or months when the disease is 
absent. But most people think they are thoroughly 



HEAIyTH AND BXBRCISB 123 

well, and need not fear the future. In those intervals 
of cessation, during my asthmatic years, I have sought 
the purest air, closed my mouth with rigidity, breathed 
deeply and slowly, holding my breath, doing this in 
my long walks day after day, never forgetting It; and 
by degrees my lungs and chest acquired a robustness 
and vigor that warded off the complaint. Let asthmatic 
invalids travel much alone till their lungs get strong. 
Constant companionship breeds too much talking, 
which tickles the air passages, and fosters the disease. 

The long walk and deep breathing affect the kidneys in 
a wonderful manner; the secretion of the urine is 
abundant and healthy. 

Deep inspiration rouses the moral energies with the 
physical. 

The atmosphere plays a most significant part in the 
functions of nutrition. 

Singing is one of the best methods for stimulating deep 
breathing. 

In singing, if at all convenient, open all the doors and 
windows possible. 

Suppose you are well in years, and there is a tendency 
to shun the sudden cold spells at the approach of 
winter, resolve to meet these changes as if they were 
old friends, rise before the sun, walk rapidly, inhaling 
nasally and deeply the life draughts ; after a while a 
pleasant sensation of heat is experienced, accompanied 



124 IvIFE SKETCHES 

with fresh elasticity ; walk some three or four miles, 
then the day will pass pleasantly. The Rubicon is 
crossed. Practice this method all winter. By so 
doing you are reserving strength for the ensuing 
summer. 

One more word, dear reader— do not worry. 

Oh, those worry-bugs on earth ! 
Heavens ! I rarely crossed a hearth 
But a nagging, worrying sound 
Made me fly swift o'er the ground. 
And I wondered why was this. 
Worrying in a world of hllss. 
The poor worry they are poor, 
The rich worry for some more. 
Waggles worries for a crust, 
Morgan for a big world trust. 
The wife worries o'er her mate, 
Staying ( lodge or spree ) so late. 
Husband worries o'er his wife 
Cutting up a Caudle life. 
Preachers worry o'er their share, 
The judge worries like a bear. 
Farmers worry o'er their crops, 
Long-faced Christians o'er the hops. 
And the curtain never drops. 
Then their cemeteries grow 
Metaphors, that hide the woe 
From the crowd ; but I could glean 
From some lines I read between : 
"Here some twenty thousand rest, 
And twelve thousand at the least 
Died from worry"— sad but true. 
Reader, does the dress fit you ? 



CHAPTER X. 

PHILOSOPHICAL. 

Discouraging and doleful indeed would life prove to 
the thoughtful man if it were not for his constant chase 
after truth, whereby he finds out the obstacles that lie 
in his pathway. He thus discovers that a frictionless 
even life would be fruitless and uneventful. The makers 
of history — ^the creators of ideas — find next to a divine 
pleasure in their life of toil. They often stand alone — 
solitary, isolated, misunderstood and unrewarded, till a 
new race of mind arrives, grasps hold of their burning 
conceptions, and, clothing them in a new dress for the 
people, reap the reward that we may suppose should 
have gone to the original architects. There is a wonder- 
ful intensity of meaning in all this, and one may see that 
it partly uplifts the veil that hides the modus operandi 
of divine method. It shows how true greatness bows 
readily to trial; how true majesty asserts itself inde- 
pendently of circumstance ; how virtue holds her place 
unswayed by the accidents of chance or fortune. 

There is much of the supernatural apparent in every 
man's life which, mixed with the drapery of fashion and 
commonplace, is allowed to sink out of sight. Life is 
thus stripped of much of its higher meaning. Careful 



126 LIFE SKETCHES 

students cannot fail to see that in the mystery of 
existence they are walking on the verge of the infinite, 
and therefore endeavor to classify the passing phenomena 
in such a manner that their whole being may take a 
healthier coloring, and their minds become more and 
more strengthened with the increase of years. When 
we consider that there is such a tendency amongst greats 
and fertile thinkers to do herculean work, we wonder 
that they are spared half their days. Far better for the 
world that they should do less in a given time, that they 
might do more in a longer age and a riper experience. 
The few instances recorded of gifted minds with great 
ages reveal some hints of those stores which, with care 
and discretion on the part of the possessor, open up with 
the years to a more splendid fruition. Are we not 
spiritual beings, or, as Carlyle says, ghosts ? It would 
be criminal folly for us to deny it, and virtually say 
that we are but as blocks of wood and no more. For 
our outside fleshly clothing this is all right. But I do 
love to see a man with some respect for that sovereignty 
which rules within, as a king on his throne. 

Life is very strange, isn't it ? I am a spectator largely 
from the fact that the phenomena of life and action 
reveal themselves with an intensity that would be ab- 
solutely painful did I not stop to examine and weigh the 
genius and purpose of all this divine machinery. To me 
life is a temple of splendid proportions — I am standing 



PHIIvOSOPHICAIy 127 

on the vestibule, and as I am peering into the profusion 
of wealth and magnificence it is necessary to have firm 
footing — for the nearer we get to the essentials of things, 
we find our best safety lies in having large faith in a 
clear unfettered, strong mind. None else can live and 
look into the presence of such divine revelation. 

Now one department of my labor is to see those law- 
givers and laborers, and all classes of society accept 
the gifts of God to their full extent, and not think that it 
is presumption to use their senses to their fullest and 
best extreme. For there are those who are far-seeing 
enough to know that they must not only use their five 
senses ; but they must find out and use that sixth and 
seventh sense which they feel that God has given them. 

And, reader, between you and me, a man may as well 
keep his mouth shut and starve to death, unless he can 
open it decently as a man. And opening our mouth to 
eat bread and meat is a very little part of the business. 
Any baby can do that. The thing to find out is how to 
open it so that we may sow seed that will burst into a 
fruition of life-giving principles. The individual who is 
capable of such power, and yet despises it, as the good 
Book says, it were far better for him " that a millstone 
were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned 
in the depths of the sea." 

When a man passes through life as a student, analyzing 
subjects that daily come up to view in the theatre of 



128 LIFE SKETCHES 

action around him, it is not likely that he will remain 
at any point like a post driven in the ground. There is 
but one resting-place in his whole career— it is felt at the 
dawn of reason— it accompanies him in life's pilgrimage. 
This resting place for the mind is God. We have a 
thousand ideas of Him, ever varying, ever imperfect; 
but yet there are divine scintillations of truth always 
permeating the conception that prove its reality. God 
is, but, as his Word declares, He is past finding out. 

The astronomer, the metaphysician, the moralist, the 
musician, the philosopher, the poet, form part of that 
distinguished band who (do what they may at times to 
obliterate or shun this divine attestation) are ever calling 
the nations to acknowledge its supremacy. Like the 
planetary orbs sailing through space, so, too, human 
minds are like visitants passing from one sphere to an- 
other. The best definition that we can give of man's life 
on earth is that he is a student, and the more refined the 
attributes which clothe his nature, the nearer is his 
assimilation with diviner forms. 

Look at the blacksmith, the shoemaker, or the cooper — 
hear them expatiate on the many-sided aspects of their 
arts, and no one is offended or afraid. But when the 
grand question of mind comes up for discussion, and God 
and heaven and immortality cry out in our hearts for 
recognizance, we must shut our windows and our doors, 
and speak under cover. So say a great many deep think- 



PHIIvOSOPHICAIv 129 

ing men ; but it is not true. The great heart of humanity- 
beats for a Divine Being, and the corelation of one 
divine truth with another is opening up the higher man- 
ifestation that in embracing one we are logically led to 
embrace all. 

I am not a fatalist ; I believe that the known and un- 
known, the sour and the sweet, the turbid and the clear 
are somewhere hidden in the sunshine of divine sov- 
ereignty. It matters not whether five or fifty years have 
elapsed — are we not still little children ? Will the pettish- 
ness and dislike and cross-grained character we to-day 
exhibit ruin us for ever ? Centuries have passed, and be- 
hold, we are beginning to know a little of our Creator. 
We partly understand that he has given us a certain 
amount of free will, and one endorsement as to its truth 
is the rod he puts in our own hands whereby we punish 
ourselves for our own sin. 

Neither am I a pantheist ; and yet there are a thousand 
things worse than pantheism. Depravity is worse; sen- 
suality is worse; intemperance is worse. There is one 
sight in our modern history the reflection of which 
should make us all blush for shame. Little more than 
two centuries ago there appeared a singular man who 
endeavored to solve the enigma of life. In this desire he 
sacrificed every ambition and aim that he might live 
worthy of his Creator. He for one said that he would 
only according to the light of his conscience, but 



130 IvIFE SKETCHES 

just as soon as he opened his lips, dense walls of iron 
ecclesiasticism fenced him round. He was excommuni- 
cated ; attempts were made upon his life ; he was pro- 
claimed as a traitor before the world; the so-called 
churches of God called him atheist and antichrist ; people 
were warned to shun him as a pestilence ; and so deeply- 
rooted lay the mountain of prejudice upon him that over 
one hundred years had passed before one would openly 
dare to do him justice. 

This solitary, grand, isolated figure of our modern 
history is Benedict Spinoza. I confess that when I first 
read his story, tears filled mine eyes, and I cried, " No, it 
must not be; this world is not a prison-house." Spinoza's 
great sin lay in the fact that he brought forward the 
philosophy of Des Cartes, his master, and in the crucible 
of his mind, under the keenest mathematical demonstra- 
tion, step by step, produced one of the grandest master- 
pieces of reasoning the world has ever seen. His ' ' Ethica" 
was the result, which fell like a thunderbolt on the 
nations. While to some his argument may seem harsh 
and repulsive, what sweet sublimity marks its pages, 
and no man can read this code of morality without be- 
coming nobler and wiser, and more adapted for the 
station which he holds. 

Let this pass as a keynote to other thoughts. I am 
very glad to say that I am a citizen of the world. I am 
obliged to view all manners and conditions of men ; and 



PHIIvOSOPHICAL 131 

when I find them every one subject to toil and tears, and 
the wrench of pain is pressing upon their homesteads 
every day, I will not dare to take the divine prerogative 
out of my Maker's hands, and say to those large bodies 
of the human family, " I am right, and you are wrong." 

On these matters I am singularly sensitive. Where we 
have thoughts worthy of a Divine Being, the aggregate 
of our labors will yield a consensus of opinion that will 
be healthy at least. That monotheism has thrown other 
forms of devotion into the shade is largely owing to the 
postulate we set forth as the groundwork of the whole. 
Society takes its main coloring from our conception of 
the Deity. Where God is pictured as a being of malev- 
olent passions, society suffers frightfully, as we find in 
many nations of the earth. The reverse follows where 
he is pictured as a Being of love and justice ; and with 
all the errors of our human governments their noblest 
prestige springs from this fundamental principle. 

Perfectly aware of the nature of the platform on which 
I stand, I see great crowds of life sweeping by, and 
nearly every one is crying out ; the questions of God, of 
the soul, and of the future are too hard to understand ; 
at the best I have but a weak faith in them ; I will labor 
for that which I do know ; I will be charitable ; I will do 
something to make life enjoyable. 

Now there is nothing at all heterodox in this. We can 
see but a little way ahead ; and we throw ourselves into 



132 LIFE SKETCHES 

masses like ants for our better protection. But it is good 
for us that we do not all follow this method. Minds are 
called over all the earth to stand alone — they have a 
mission to accomplish — they seem to carry some unseen 
armor of defence, and, like the weak oak gaining strength 
in the wintry blast, so these minds grow sturdy and firm 
by the intense opposition and warfare used for their 
destruction. It is the word of prophecy that "the lot is 
cast in the lap, but the disposing thereof is of the Lord." 
No more beautiful and significant utterance ever 
passed the lips of man than the remark of Oersted, that 
"the conception of the universe is incomplete, if not 
comprehended as a constant and continuous work of the 
eternally-creating Spirit." Weigh this passage with the 
utterances of the Bible — ponder the wonderful Book well, 
and you will find that Oersted's mind lies in close corre- 
spondence with it. To think that we may be only break- 
ing the mist that has enveloped us for ages — that our 
constant traveling in old beaten paths, based on some 
ancient procedure or form, prevented us from looking at 
spirit and nature in their higher aspects ; to think that 
the inorganic forces in our midst have at length shamed 
us into acquiescence with a sweeter and more ennobling 
religious life, more exalted ideas of divine government, 
and such knowledge of the spaces around us that give 
many a hint of our relation to the riches and beatitude 
of a future life. 



PHIIvOSOPHICAL 133 

There are thousands of utterances in the Book that find 
their analogies in the boundless machinery of nature 
around us — constantly misconstrued by the ignorant 
mind, but stimulating and invigorating to more cultivated 
understandings. I find that many noble and eminent 
men like Parker and Emerson find here mines of wealth 
not seen by others. The changes and fluctuations of life 
led them to look up to the Creator as constantly super- 
intending his works — not only superintending, but con- 
serving; not only conserving, but creating. It would be 
wrong to say that these men have not strengthened the 
vision of their readers, by placing them in more fitting 
perspective in this great camping ground. It is in a 
knowledge of this kind that we find we are entering 
farther into the arena of our Father's workmanship. 
Still at work as of old, "when the morning stars sang 
together," the Creator is to-day the great builder as well 
as the architect. 

There is a mighty field of prefiguration and analogy 
right in our midst barely touched upon. Now just as 
soon as close and careful observers set themselves to 
work in these lines they will find a series of steps that 
will lead them to a storehouse of abundant evidences. 
Every man entering the pulpit has not only the right to 
grasp at the fulness of Scripture, but at the fulness of 
nature also ; and to peer with all his capacities in that 
field which in its truest aspect is nothing less than a 



134 IvlFB SKETCHES 

garden of gold. Intelligent minds wish to know the why 
and wherefore of things. Now logic cannot answer 
them: but when you take them into the garden of nature 
I speak of, you show them through symbol and analogy 
strange things that will humble them in their thought, 
and speak to them in their silence : — We are stepping- 
stones to higher truths that rest ultimately in God and 
immortality. 

When we compare the age of our race, the character- 
istics of mind — the variations, the strange transitions 
ever marking the face of society, over which govern- 
ments have no control whatever, and yet order and to a 
large extent wisdom are overlapping all — is there not 
here evidence that the Book, but on a higher and 
grander scale, will bear much of a new interpretation ? 
Should we fall in line with this natural transition in 
shaping events, or fight against it, and be great losers in 
the end ? There are a goodly crowd who follow the old 
conservative paths; and from their point of compass 
they do well. Man sees a certain distance — some farther 
than others. He must be a brave man to live up to the 
range of his vision, be it short or long. There is no 
room for censure here. Sympathy is needed all along 
the line. No two minds are alike, and yet they are 
fashioned in their essentials to march onward to the call 
of duty, under the great leadership of God. In that 
swirling tide where the fools of fashion play their somer- 



PHIIvOSOPHICAIv 135 

saults there are seldom any vestiges found of the diviner 
side of man's destiny — where with plausible air and oily 
subterfuge each steals the equipment of the other, and 
cries it as his own. 

Modern investigation, combined with some correct 
knowledge of the analogies of life and nature, is at length 
pulling down many of the barriers which for generations 
have kept civilized races from living up to their highest 
privilege. The difficulties that were constantly looming 
to stagger and perplex man were so often the creatures 
of his own invention, and became so marked in the 
texture of his researches, that any fresh light thrown 
upon the canvas has very slowly been acknowledged in its 
purpose and mission. The fundamental error in all this 
lay in the great distance between God and His works. 
As the Creator and Maker, He has been for untold gener- 
ations separated from man. It looks indeed as if the 
hand of science were stretching out over the range of 
His workmanship for a closer acquaintance with His 
methods, that, let us hope, will prove as a great adjunct 
of Civilization in accomplishing her mission. 



CHAPTER XI. 

*' A man's a man for a' that." 

Life is so full of beauty, that even looking backward 
should be agreeable . When a delicate boy, in the old 
printing office, a rapscallion one morning challenged me 
to a fight; but a stout, ruddy youth of my own age 
ran to my defence, and pommeled my antagonist into 
a more gentlemanly demeanor. I occasionally meet my 
old deliverer, as we have kept the divine fire warm and 
glowing ever since. Mr. Robert Waters is well known 
as the able supervisor of the Public Schools in West 
Hoboken. His "Life of William Cobbett," "Shakespeare 
Portrayed by Himself," " The Intellectual Life, " "Selden 
and His Table Talk," "Flashes of Wit and Humor," 
have left a healthful stamp upon the age, and prove well 
the genius and worth of my old friend. Vigor, wit and 
clearness mark all his pages. 

Another of my printing confreres was Mr. John 
Patterson, a Scotchman, who furnishes a strong proof 
that the aristocracy of m.ind is never anywhere so firm 
and unbending as in the children of genius. And, most 
wonderful to state, these pets of nature seem largely to 
be unaware of the first principles of dogmatism. Most 
of Mr. Patterson's poems are sweet and lyrical. No 



"A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT" 137 

man regrets more than himself that he has had no 
leisure to perfect them as choice pieces. There are 
flashes of genius in his late poem on Robert Burns, 
which it is to be hoped the guardians of our literary 
taste will preserve to the honor of their author. 

Another typo was Denis Quinn, a character I loved 
heart and soul. A stout, elephantine mortal, quiet and 
docile, fond of books, one day reading Ferguson's History 
of Rome, and on another a treatise on law, he unfolded 
into a lawyer of no mean ability, then into a judge of 
the Civil Court in New York. 

Some became excellent business men. One of these 
was Mr. J. W. Pratt, whose large printing establish- 
ment in New York is well known. Nor should I forget 
to speak of the patience and nobility which characterize 
God's children everywhere. Good old Robert Watson, 
the cheerful stereotyper, was one. For nearly fifty 
years, I understand, he stood at his post. Earnest, re- 
signed, trusting — he left no record on the printed page 
of man ; but what a faithful student for the time he 
dwelt among us ! George Young was a frolicking good 
boy, a copyholder when I knew him, and now he is a 
man of power and influence in Brooklyn, and very seldom 
saws the air, unless it be at a church or prayer meeting. 

The Scotch wouldn't forgive me one bit if I were to 
leave out of these sketches my old friend Lawrence 
Robertson, afterwards long proprietor of the Scotsman. 



138 LIFE SKETCHES 

Mrs. Robertson would captivate me with her Lowland 
Scotch accent, which I candidly confess is one of the 
sweetest dialects in the world. "Now, Airchie, sit doon 
to your dinner, and eat plenty. What ! you dinna 
want that nice soup ! Well, you can just eat it, or get 
up and skip. What is guid for me, is guid for you, honey." 

We had a printer in the same office by the name of 
Donnelson, as strange a character in his way as ever 
walked this world. Lucky indeed if he could make his 
three dollars a day, his braggadocio in betting on the 
streets gave the crowd an impression that he was a 
millionaire ; and many a horse-race and many a prize- 
fight waited the dictum of his little finger. His good 
nature ran to excess, and floored him so completely 
at times that to retrieve his fortunes he rushed into the 
betting field, and for aught the world knew he gained 
his point. There were grand traits about Donnelson. He 
made many a home happy, and many a heart sing for joy. 

Regarding old printing associations in.Beekman street 
I should have mentioned William Wilton, with whom I 
wrought in the early fifties, and at whose little printing 
office subsequently my first printed sermon, "David 
Looking on Himself," saw the light. I set up the type 
with mine own hands ; and the way we fraternized and 
hobnobbed day and night to make the production come 
out in time and in the best dress possible, is worth men- 
tioning. 



" A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT " 139 

In those early days we were besieged by famous 
visitors. V/alt Whitman was a common figure in the 
streets of New York with a peculiarly independent man- 
ner that in itself won great attention. His "Leaves of 
Grass" had just been placed on the market and evoked 
much severe criticism. His hour had not arrived. 

Bayard Taylor was a prominent visitor at the print- 
ing office; also, James Parton, author of Life of 
Horace G-reeiey, "Fanny Fern" and others. What tides 
of theologians hovered in the arena; for Carter 
Brothers, the great Presbyterian publishing house, was 
then in its prime. All quarters of the mental compass, 
and all sides of the odium theologicum were sifted in the 
printing press — the compositor sometimes wondering 
whether he was virtually standing on his head or his 
heels. 

In 1857 I became acquainted with a peculiar, silent 
character, who worked as a job printer on the Evening 
Post — one Edouard Jones, about seventy years of age. 
At that time when bitter controversies were still raging 
regarding the "Revelations of Maria Monk," he entered 
the lists of the opposition, but wrote in the French 
language. His work gained some repute in Canada. 
He was a good French scholar and a thorough gentleman. 

An Italian count, an exile, at the same time and place 
wrought as a comjDositor. We could never glean his 
name : he had abundance of money, was an accomplished 



I40 LIFE SKETCHES 

linguist, an excellent player on the flute ; his dress was 
of the richest materials, and he always carried a stiletto 
on his person. Uncommunicative, except when speaking 
on his beloved Italy, when his temper rose to an amaz- 
ing frenzy, his sudden disappearance in 1858 led many 
10 suppose that he entered the Italian army under Gari- 
baldi, and probably perished in battle. 

No greater enjoyment had I in my young days than 
meeting with John B. Gough. A veil of despair occa- 
sionally limned his countenance, and gave some hint to 
the outer world of the fearful soul-struggle that was 
passing within. Duty alone kept him at his post, but it 
was duty baptized in tears. Dry and unpolished in his 
utterances — often jagged and harsh in his intonation, 
nervous and excitable to the highest pitch — the law of 
association befriended him as he advanced, and the 
scenes of his life flew around him like a hailstorm. 

It is astonishing that Gough, wearing such an intense 
robe of earnestness on the platform, ever saw a good old 
age. For he possessed an enthusiasm like a raging 
flame, that could be turned to terrible advantage. He 
endeavored to keep this fire within limits, but some- 
times it set the audience into such paroxysms of suffering 
that his quick retort to repartee from respect for their 
feelings had not the desired effect, and his disappoint- 
ment was strong. His speeches were more than pictures 
— they seemed realities. Some would go to scoff and 



'* A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT" 141 

raalign him, and left the house crying like little children. 
On one occasion, on opening his address, he stated in a 
singularly calm way that the day before as he rapped at 
the door of a house he heard strange groans, and rushing 
miadly up-stairs — for he divined the cause — he narrowly 
escaped the axe aimed at a poor sick wife's head, and 
warded it off within a hairbreadth of her brow, when 
the daughter like a fierce tiger rushed with a large knife 
on her father, crying : ' ' Murder ! O God, my mother is 
dead I You brute to kill her." He went on, but the 
sequel could barely be heard from the groans and sighs 
that affected the audience. Many strove to rush for the 
door, but the crowd prevented them, and Gough soon 
set them right again. 

The Rev. Dr. Chapin, Unitarian, was gifted with an- 
other sort of eloquence. Strength and grace marked his 
style. The Sunday of my visit gave me an opportunity 
of seeing the Tribune philosopher in church ; for there, a 
little way ahead of me, was Greeley, bowing forward, 
apparently asleep — but whether asleep or awake, it is 
said by those who knew him well, he would remember 
nearly every word of the preacher. Chapin's discourse 
did not strike me at first as peculiarly brilliant, but he 
was a master, as I soon found, keeping his hearers on 
tip-toe expectancy for some metaphor or illustration. 
It was pretty near the peroration when I could see that 
the preacher was slowly entering the garner house for a 



142 LIFE SKETCHES 

theme. It was not new. He was touching on the spirit 
of evil throwing out her cords around the human heart, 
and instanced the ever new figure of a man imprisoned 
alone in a room for days and weeks, and finds that the 
place is certainly not the same — that it is becoming 
smaller around him. And so the walls draw in day 
after day till he is crushed to death. Chapin pictured 
this in a diction that could hardly be surpassed. He 
studied the whole art of elocution to adorn such pictures 
with telling effect. 

In my early years in Brooklyn I had many oppor- 
tunities of conversing with Dr. Abel Stevens, the historian 
of Methodism, and have not failed in following the 
counsel he gave me. I had also the good fortune to 
meet with Richard G-rant V/hite, who was then one 
of the ablest contributors to the New York World. 
His affability strongly impressed me, and his pleasing, 
open, sunshiny face fell like a picture on my memory, 
where it remains fresh as the day I first met him. Call 
it a riddle if you please, but I believe that the cheerful- 
ness of Richard Grant White's nature (a physiognomy 
you can see that forestalled great breadth of emotion) 
has added to the hours of my existence. 

In newspaper life there were stormy scenes. Journal- 
istic rancor was terribly bitter in those years. Horace 
Greeley by nature was not a man fitted for low diatribe 
and venom. He lived above them. But when he was 



" A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT " 143 

challenged and berated, and plastered with the filth of 
the forum, he lifted his weapon of defence like a two- 
edged sword; and it fell with remorseless fury. Perhaps 
James Gordon Bennett and Erastus Brooks were more 
famed for literary fireworks than any others. The Hon. 
James Brooks I knew well. He was a being of splendid 
temper, a man of cool determined resolution, whose 
literary style seemed largely superior to the taste of his 
readers. But Erastus, his brother, made up where 
James failed. And so Bennett and Brooks had it hot 
and heavy. Home, friendships, personalities w^ere all 
drawn out of their precincts to open up an era of mud- 
throwing. Mr. Bennett must be criticised and scourged 
on account of his plain, shabby-looking dress, and 
the public must know, on the other side, that Mr. 
Brooks' bill for the butcher was seven dollars a month. 
It was a very poor era for journalism. And when 
Branch came out with his ' ' Alligator, " the world saw 
the incarnation of whips and stings. No paper was 
better named. We have outgrown all these miseries, 
though now and then an attempt is made to revive them. 
As a general observer of life and manners, I made no 
scruple of meeting on several occasions in 1857 with the 
''Sons of God," a society of fanatics that sprang into 
existence a few years before. The Brooklyn meetings 
T^-ere under the leadership of one Cook, quite a religious 
diplomat, as any sensible person might see by the way 



144 LIFB SKETCHES 

he rolled and winked his eyes, as if a thousand imps were 
laughing there at the tomfoolery he was playing with 
the sacred affections of the heart. A feature of their 
system was the denial of any consciousness of their 
prior identity, that in their new relation of divine sons 
they were quite unknown to the world. A Dr. Bennett, 
of Brooklyn, was a great disciple and teacher. I once 
interrogated him. "Why," said he, "you are not 
speaking to Erastus Bennett any more. I don't know 
anything of him — never knew him. I am a ' son of God.' " 

The "sons" had a degrading habit of pouring the 
filthiest ordure upon the heads of all who sought admis- 
sion to the circle. Could you once pass this ordeal of 
infamy (which probably Cook hatched after the Greek 
Eleusinia) you were supposed to receive the nature, 
and then the hand of fellowship. Poor Amy Beck ! I 
wonder if there is any family in Brooklyn to-day of the 
name of Carpenter who remembers her. She was a 
relative — a woman of some education and refinement. 
They had a comfortable home; but there was no room 
there for her. I heard her at the prayer meetings, and 
soon gauged her calibre. She occupied for a few weeks 
a position as reader or chaplain in City Hall park. New 
York, at the time of the war. Here she was in her 
element. 

One evening when I was present she visited the ' ' sons," 
for women were also admitted. "You're as black as 



"A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT" 145 

the devil," said the leader; " we dare not get near you — 
you are rotten with sin from head to foot ; you must be 
purged as with fire and brimstone before we can touch 
you. The devils are tearing your body." "O God Al- 
mighty, where am I ?" said the poor creature, gathering 
up her skirts, and rushing for the door. " Let me out — 
let me out— I am surely in hell." 

Miss Beck was taken to Flatbush, where she remained 
at intervals for about twenty-five years till her death. 
After my return to Brooklyn I visited her on three oc- 
casions. Her sanity was mild, and never violent. I have 
not the least doubt however that the yelpings of the 
"sons" drove many a noble heart to madness and death. 

New York from the years 1852 to 1857 may be said to 
have been pretty well under mob law. The most revolt- 
ing pictures were publicly hawked about the streets, and 
drunkenness and lunacy were wonderfully prevalent in 
society. Here also walked the ogre Morrissey, who for 
his bull-dog pugilism was sent to the senate at Albany to 
the shame of the American people. 

Coming down to more recent times — I had long heard 
of the good work carried on by Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, 
the Christian temperance orator, and called upon him on 
the edge of his great affliction — a precious young 
daughter full of genius and promise had just been carried 
to the grave. *'0 my dear sir," said he, "she is not 
there — that is but the casket. Grod has bereft me of her 



146 LIFE SKETCHES 

just as she was blossoming into usefulness— but all is 
well. I can trust in Him/' Wherever I find him in the 
busy thoroughfare or quiet retreat, that first meeting 
with its touching sacredness rises before me. 

Of my old friend Dr. Edward Beecher — brother of 
Henry Ward — I must say a word here, as our relations 
were free and unconventional while preaching in the 
Parkville Congregational Church. His "Conflict of 
the Ages" — which gained him notoriety at the time — 
bears testimony that keeps ever widening as to the diffi- 
culty of the solution of the problem of the fall. His 
argument for pre-existence, while displaying some of 
the keenest logical acumen, exposed him to a tirade next 
door to ribaldry from friends and foes. In dogmatics 
the doctor was a good fencer ; he could lunge and parry 
as well as the best. And in his " Concord of Ages" he 
paid them back at full arm's length but with a calmness 
and keen sense that must have been terribly provoking. 
"Concord" is worth reading. 

Let me pay deference here to the Rev. J. Hyatt Smith, 
a man who was never more pleased than when he could 
see the young rising to the most exalted positions. The 
venom of base-born jealousy never assailed him. Rom- 
anist, Protestant, Israelite, Unitarian, Universalist, 
Quaker, were his brethren. As a teacher and as a poli- 
tician he wrought with clean hands. 

A great and honorable character was Dr. Reuben 



"A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' TPIAT" 147 

Jeffrey of Marcy Avenue Baptist Church. Such a man 
was called to fill a wider field, and when he left Brooklyn 
for the West, many were the sighs and hopes that he 
might have all the latitude he desired to work for his 
Master. Some of his declamations rang with a power 
that thrilled his audiences to the height of his own 
passion. An intelligent but sceptical friend of mine had 
been going from church to church. " Why," said he, 
"they talk like children." "Well," said I, "go and 
hear Jeffrey." "Now at last I have found a man who 
can preach and teach," said the delighted inquirer. This 
is high testimony for Jeffrey, but it is true. 

The Bev. Dr. Charles H. Hall, of Holy Trinity, had 
long filled the role of a polished and well-developed 
teacher. His utterances were weighty, and robed at 
times in a cloth of gold, displaying an exuberance of 
the acutest learning and a most extensive knowledge 
of the passions. The doctor was a great study in 
himself — gifted in private conversation with an ease and 
deference which conciliated and charmed, but not till 
one heard him on the platform had he any idea of the 
Boanerges standing before him. 

On my return to Brooklyn Henry Ward Beecher gave 
me most cordial greeting ; and certainly took hold of me 
so suddenly with his point-blank familiarity as to make 
me feel just as if I were in my own house. There was a 
magnetism about his grasp that was certainly inspiring, 



148 LIFE SKETCHES 

and as if he feared that the afflatus were not rich enough 
he would press me with both hands. How wonderfully 
wise he became with his years ! And how wonderfully 
unwise on our side we became in chasing after the little 
bits of refuse in his utterances that must necessarily 
exist where there is so much gold. 

The Rev. Dr. Richard Storrs had been laboring in the 
Pilgrim Church, Brooklyn, for many long years. It 
would not do for me to pass him by without some refer- 
ence — although it does seem that the eventualities which 
constantly mark our life leave their prejudices sticking 
all around us, and frightening us near to death. Let 
those catch who can. My knowledge of the doctor goes 
back to 1852, when I read many of his proofs. His 
written style pleased me remarkably. Ease, grace and 
point were conspicuous. I like to mention a matter of 
this kind, as it partly shows how we are built up in this 
world — and how in turn we are called to build and en- 
rich others. 

Another noble worker for his Master was the Rev. Dr. 
Tyng. " Look here," said he, as he ushered me into 
the vestry, where there were some seventeen persons — 
poor, sick and wounded, waiting his personal attention. 
"This is my morning's work — every day I have my 
hands full. I have not a moment to myself. I am worn 
out. Give me your address. Give me a date when you 
can come again." Dr. Tyng had a remarkable sense of 



" A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT" 149 

freedom, which the conventionalism of his Church did 
not sanction, to the pain and sorrow of many of his 
dearest friends. 

Dr. Elbert Porter, of the Intelligencer, was another 
man I loved. The old writer was popular. Like all men 
he had his failings — he was aware of it — but for mental 
grasp there'^were few that could equal him. His thought 
ran at times like glistening diamonds on a bed of marl — 
at others he was incisive as a knife cutting into the flesh. 

1 am to day singularly thankful that I had even one 
opportunity of meeting with Dr. McCosh, the Zeus of 
theological thinkers. When I see so many men wander- 
ing out into the realm of reason, and finding deep waters 
where there is no standing, this divine fearlessly went 
out, and came back with something that he had gathered 
in the thousand different lines of human learning. Such 
a mind does not belong to Europe or America, but to the 
world — not to the Presbyterian, or Episcopal, but to the 
whole church. The presence of such a thinker in the 
domain of religion forbids sectarianism. The profundity 
of thought that marks his large collection of writings is 
something astonishing. 

As I had many opportunities of meeting the Rev. Dr. 
Talmage, I must touch on him here. He was well aware 
of his genius, but of his frailties also ; and was a grand 
delineator and sketcher, where power and good humor 
were wonderfully blended. Many did not agree with his 



I50 I,IFE SKETCHES 

theological bias. But he grew more earnest with the 
years, and cast an influence that has been largely bene- 
ficial to the world. 

Dr. Lyman Abbott is still with us, a type of the new 
progressive theology. His observation is broad, his in- 
tuitions keen, his ratiocination large and ready. He is 
not therefore apt to flounder in the weeds of speculation, 
but can with his grappling-hook extricate the sands of 
gold from the waters of infidelism, and show a course 
for the vessel to steer out into clearer seas. He can thus 
feed the inquirer and pay homage where it is due, to 
Eome, to Buddha, or to Zoroaster. He will hold up 
Christ as the great love and light of life, and will not 
Iveep you wasting your time sifting into the depth and 
relationship of this mighty incarnation. He is educative 
throughout, and his vocabulary easily adapts itself to 
the grasp of his audience on any subject before him. He 
strives to do justice to the sovereignty of the v/ill and to 
the majesty of existence ; he is reflective by nature, and 
is seldom caught dallying v/ith the emotions. 

The Rev. Dr. Behrends, of the Central Congregational 
Church, Brooklyn, I had often called upon. Born in 
Holland, and bearing the traces of a clear and concise 
thinker — slow and cautious in his approaches, he carried 
the impress of a man whose esoteric grasp was large, but 
would be unfolded just according to the nature of the 
events iu which he might be called to act. Many were 



"A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT" 151 

the regrets that Dr. Behrends had not the field for his 
fullest ideal. But that great mind, like that of Dr. 
Jeffrey, let us believe will have scope for its ablest efforts 
now ; every pure and chastened thought of a future life 
tells us this. 

A word or two here regarding the happy hours spent 
with Samuel Putney, jr., of London, England, a man of 
fine business tact and capacity ; also of his estimable wife, 
daughter of Rev. Dr. Anderson, of Quebec, Canada; 
where I first met the poet, James Williamson, who 
charmed us with his conversations on Carlyle and other 
dignitaries. Williamson's muse was plain and simple, 
not weighted with metaphor, nor dazzling with conceits 
of style. He loved the well-beaten path. 

The Rev. J. J. White, of the M. P. Church, and the 
Rev. Jas. O'Bierne, of St. John's R. C. Church, had many 
and similar traits worth noting. White came of an old 
warrior stock, his father having fought in the war of 
1812, and while exhibiting the graces of the Christian 
life, he would not allow himself to be smothered with 
the flowers of compliment especially when accompanied 
with an extra amount of hard work from the sister 
churches. His large veneration, benevolence and good 
nature were strikingly developed. People spoke of him 
as the dollar marrying minister. But it mattered not to 
him whether it was a dollar or a cent when age and 
nature called for union. " I am glad," said he, " to be a 
party to an engagement of this kind." And he was right. 



152 UFE SKETCHES 

The Rev. Jas. O'Bierne was much of a wit as well as a 
pastor, and was highly esteemed by all classes of people. 
He was subject to an affliction which, with all its annoy- 
ances, never deprived him of his good humor. A cancer 
on the nose for many years baffled the skill of physicians. 
At length, a Dr. John Hanna, a specialist in this line, 
took up the case, and Bierne was cured for a time. 
When the truth came out great was the horror to think 
that an Orangeman could cure such a dignitary. But 
said the good father to me, "I thank G-od for the cure, 
no matter through what agency." Some years after the 
cancer reappeared, and carried him to his grave. 

The Rev. Sylvester Malone, the gentle leader in the 
R. C. Church, Dr. Edward McGlynn, the most aggressive 
warrior, and Dr. Justin D. Fulton, the great war horse 
in the Protestant Church, I knew well. And something 
seems to tell me that now they have passed away, they 
are the best of friends. 

Let me mention here a character — Dr. Peter Ross — 
whom I first met in 1890. Perhaps Scotch grit and vigor 
were never better exemplified. His daily routine of 
newspaper work, that would be enough for most men, 
but sharpened his appetite, so that the night found him 
employed as well as the day. His "Life of St. Andrew," 
' ' Scotland and the Scots, " ' ' The Scot in America, " ' ' King 
Craft in Scotland, "" History of Freemasonry," and his 
vast "History of Long Island," about being finished at 



"A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT" 153 

the time of his death, give us room to believe that such 
a life has added largely to the happiness of man. 

Away from the literary zone let me mention Daniel B. 
Fitts, who died recently in Newport, E, I. He had been 
a school teacher, and suffered from a lameness for many 
years ; but while it inconvenienced him in many things, 
it never checked his purse in distributing his charities. 
•And his benefactions were at times very large; thous- 
ands of all denominations were constantly recipients 
of his bounty. And yet so quietly and nobly and un- 
selfishly was this work done, that he passed away with 
little ceremony. He did not care about pushing his name 
before the world. 

I must not forget to speak of my old friend Mr. John 
A. Halton, whom I met several times in 1888, while 
writing my church sketches for the Standard Union. He 
held the position of editor with versatility and tact, 
tempered with such noble sense of freedom, _and large 
insight for the brotherhood of man, that won my highest 
regard. I congratulate my readers that he still car- 
ries, in the editorial chair, that vein of independence 
and fair play to his own honor and the esteem of the 
public. 

It is in place here to speak of a star rising in the firma- 
ment of social ethics. Mr. Philip L. Seman is a very 
young man, a native of Poland ; and passed in his seventh 
year a rigid examination in the Hebrew Talmud. Be- 



154 IvIFB SKETCHES 

sides speaking German, French and English, he is con- 
versant with the twenty-one idioms of the Yid- 
dish ; is an apt and fluent speaker ; has been teacher 
and supervisor in the large Hebrew Orphan Asy- 
lum, and in the Educational Alliance, New York; and 
has been urged to take the editorship of a journal 
''New Life," to appear next January; he is quite a 
humanitarian, and leader of a large Progressive Circle 
in Brooklyn. His gifts are great. May he wear with 
dignity and success the honors conferred upon him in this 
nation where he has made his home. 

The most of them have gone: we will soon follow. Take 
the rough and the smooth, there is nothing disheartening 
in the records of the past. Self-denial may cost a good 
deal, but it is a fortune to a young man. I have watched 
life closely. Self-examination leads to caution and to 
reverence : we thus enter new degrees of being even in 
this life if we look for them ; but the knave and the sen- 
sualist pave the way for their own ruin. 



CHAPTER XII. 

HOURS WITH THE SCOTCH FOLK. 

In this elusive age, when there is so little independent 
thinking, and where men study in the institutions to 
think one way, and then rush for ruts to speak another 
way, and hide in the crowd whatever special dowry 
Nature has granted them, I have to thank that same 
old Mother Nature for saying, Now keep your mouth 
shut till I open it, for you will have to speak very plainly 
at times, and don't you dare forget it. 

At this time of life I ought to know something about 
myself, and therefore I must candidly confess that I am 
a most rigid optimist in a school where Schopenhauer 
tells us the whole moral universe is dyed in pessimism. 
You may call me a paradox if you please ; but I am very 
jealous of running to the common side of things, and I 
do it for my safety. Providence gave me a sensitive, 
nervous temperament, and it sticks to me like a burr on 
a woolen sack. To keep calm and cool, therefore, I must 
have my own way: I suffer no embarrassment from 
courts, councils, or assemblies, as I never throw myself 
in the way of needlessly affronting them. I hold com- 
munion with Nature through two channels — one when 
alone with her in the haunts of silence, and one when 



156 LIFE SKETCHES 

in the mighty crowd, where I unbosom the hearts 

of men and read the story of their life. 

I am remarkably fond of rainy weather, and often 
when a heavy Scotch mist is falling, and I find it essential 
to take a good walk through it, I bare my head to the 
delicious moisture for half an hour or more, and find 
that it is a spur to health. If I have any business 
to transact a mile oil by one route, and a mile and a 
half or two miles by the other, I invariably take the 
longest road, and avoid the cars as I do a pestilence. 
Walking is my prophylactic, and should I ride two or 
three hours, or enter a badly ventilated room, I become 
so ill that all the drugs of the pharmacopoeia will not 
restore me. 

In all these things I please my mentor of health, and 
consider that — as I have a great deal to do to brighten 
the spirits of my brethren all around me and lift them 
out of that all-gone condition they exhibit rushing like 
a swarm of bees into the doctors' offices and drug stores 
— to be in good health is to be in good humor. 

I have no sympathy with that form of Christianity 
that debars secular song and enjoyment from its place 
in the working of a cheerful civilization. All our 
systems of philosophy and ethics must le^ve a very large 
margin for the humorous in our nature. Where wealth 
and sordid misanthropy, or fanaticism, throw their 
chilling influence to enervate or weaken the social fabric, 



HOURS WITH THE SCOTCH FOLK 157 

our civil laws invariably rush to the front for the de- 
fence of the people. Man must laugh, and laugh heart- 
ily, to keep well. 

It was in Boston, Mass., one evening in the autumn of 
1891, when a never-to-be-forgotten experience planted 
this argument firmly in my mind. Early in the night a 
lady asked me to call and see her very sick son, who had 
long been ill. "He cannot last long, poor fellow," said 
she, as tears filled her eyes. I told her that on my way 
home from a Scottish gathering, where I was to give an 
address, I should call upon him. Burns' famous song, 
' ' Duncan Gray Cam' Here to Woo, " had been sung with 
great enthusiasm before I left; and, somewhat oddly for 
myself, in such a crisis, I kept humming the refrain as I 
walked to his house. On the door being opened, starting 
the melody quite inadvertently before the sick man, I 
suddenly stopped and changed my remarks. But the 
man was too quick for me ; and, with tears bursting from 
his eyes and joy lighting his face, cried out : ' ' Oh, Mr. 
Ross, sing it! sing it!" I felt that the man must be com- 
forted, so I sang two verses. Neither did I forget in that 
wonderful hour my ministerial office, for I prayed with 
my friend before leaving with great enjoyment to us 
both, and left his chamber ripe with a new experience 
that has blessed me and others. That flush of joy so 
stirred the sick man that he soon recovered. Whenever 
afterward I met Mr. Murray he would cry out, " Here's 



158 LIFE SKETCHES 

the man that saved my life by singing ' Duncan Gray.' " 
There are times even in the sick room when a song has 
a more inspiring effect than any hymn in the world. 

The northern section of the tight little island, called 
Auld Scotia, has done more for the uplifting and up- 
building of mankind than she gets credit for. In the 
popular range of song her ' ' Auld Lang Syne" has touched 
scores of millions of human hearts ; and in her perhaps 
too exclusive religious atmosphere, one refrain, bursting 
all bounds, has knit the whole world together — the 
Twenty-third Psalm. I may cite here an experience of 
my own in Massachusetts some years ago that made me 
feel proud of my Scottish folk. I engaged a hall for an 
evening's entertainment in May, and, in the presence of 
the proprietor, jotted down the date in my note-book, 
leaving with the understanding that any further dealings 
would be made with the janitor. Things were sailing 
very satisfactorily until the last moment, when a Mr. 
Lovely with his backers confronted us, stating that he 
had engaged the hall, and that his tickets had been selling 
for three weeks. It was a trying moment for myself 
particularly, but I was sustained with such brusque, 
warmhearted determination by my friends that another 
place was soon secured. It was small, and we were all 
sweltering in good wholesome perspiration. We were 
there to be happy — that fact was evident. This is the 
golden privilege of the Scot. His acumen is keen and 



HOURS WITH THE SCOTCH FOLK 159 

metaphysical, but matter-of-fact, nevertheless. He is 
aware of his gift. He sings as he goes along his hard, 
daily work, and the world pays him testimony that no 
one can beat him. He has no time for entering into 
those brawls which on just such occasions disturb many 
other races. The stubborn ess of John Knox and Jennie 
Geddes shows to good advantage after all. 

When in the coal regions of Shenandoah, some seven 
years ago, just after going down the deep William Penn 
mine, I found myself, after a long walk, near a pretty 
country house, where I had hoped to make arrangements 
for a night's rest. I was heartily welcomed ; musical 
instruments and song were brought in for our delectation. 
As I sat and rejoiced with the cheery folks in the cosy 
mansion, I do not suppose that on this little v»?orld a 
sweeter place could be found. It was fully twelve o'clock 
before we retired to rest. Through the night a strange 
dream possessed me that I was sailing in a very unstable 
old boat that might at any time break up. Undisturbed 
I slept on. While at breakfast a gentleman called — asked 
why they allowed me to sleep in such a house sinking 
into a deep coal mine. " Well," said my host, ''we've 
been living here thirteen years, and the house hasn't 
sunk yet." His thrilling description made me think, and 
I soon bade them a pleasant farewell. Before nightfall 
of that day the house had largely disappeared, but the 
inmates escaped. Yes, thought I, life is worth living 



i6o LIFE SKETCHES 

after all. Ah, yes! but it is our relationship to the 

Divine that keeps us happy. 

Ringing a door bell in Lynn, Mass., for some informa- 
tion regarding work I had in the city, the door flew open, 
and a lady with red hair appeared, who showed some 
terrible tantrums of passion, so that I was obliged to 
give her a pretty apt lecture. She softened and bade me 
be seated. There was a pretty piano in a corner of the 
room, covered thick with dust, but the lady sharply ad- 
mitted that no one could play it. Well, I suddenly 
opened it, put my hand upon it, sang and played one 
solitary air that I had picked up, "The Lord's my 
Shepherd." Tears sprang into the lady's eyes. She told 
me her thrilling life story, begged me to remain some 
days and cheer her home. "No," said I, " I came here 
as my intuition led me. But you are better now." "Yes, 
thank God. He sent you here. You have made this day 
happy." O Earthians, why don't you sing more? That 
was no lie but a grand truth of Orpheus with his lyre 
charming not only the living, but the rocks and waters, 
and even the very demons in hell. 

The great spur to a healthful and happy life amongst 
mankind is sympathy. We are fashioned this way ; and 
just in the ratio of our expression of this divine quality, 
so will our whole life tend. Society takes its base from 
individual impression; and this relation is invariably 
sustained in the fact of existence. 



HOURS WITH THE SCOTCH FOLK i6i 

In the play of social physics song has a great place, 
and is more highly representative of spiritual nature than 
is generally known. In this relation, therefore, the whole 
subject, some ten years ago, loomed up before me in its 
full suggest] veness. After my severe illness in 1890, I 
travelled extensively — Pennsylvania, up and down, 
through the coal mines, giving me a very fair exhibit of 
life in that region; then taking the New England States, 
I made Massachusetts the main field of study. My visits 
to the factories and workshops awakened me into a new 
life. Night after night I met employes and employers 
at their homes. We conversed on a thousand different 
things. Ventilation was a common topic. Light, water, 
manners came up for discussion. There was but one 
great essential lacking, and that they all acknowledged 
was sympathy. 

Though the wages in many respects were small, the 
workmen did not grumble so much at this. And while 
I was astonished here, I was gladdened at their testimony 
for the church. But thousands cared not to attend the 
church. They said they found but little magnetism in 
the preacher. And yet there was that in those men and 
women that could be roused into life-giving activity. 
What is the best plan to arouse it? That is the great 
question. 

While some of the clergy, as our readers are aware, 
are hoping to strengthen their pastorates by opening 



i62 UFE SKETCHES 

dancing halls in the church basements — a very question- 
able business — others are placing billiard tables in the 
church rooms, others are forming euchre parties to 
stimulate the interest and keep their people within the 
church. But in all of these methods there is a lack of 
cohesion. I do not think that the churches look into the 
matter from the most fitting standpoint. 

What is life unless it be embosomed in enjoyment, 
grace and beauty ? It is said, and I think truly, that to 
a large extent we have the making or unmaking of our- 
selves. The theatre, the billiard table, the euchre or 
dancing party draw out enthusiasm and interest; but 
they have not that singular sway over the feelings that 
skilled singers possess. When this is carried on by 
pastor and people the round of enjoyment keeps them 
more together. He takes part with his people in the 
night of prayer, and also in the night of song. The mem- 
bers feel that he is one of themselves. They listen to his 
spiritual advice; and yet they know right well that he is 
a jolly good fellow. 

I would heartily recommend entertainments of Scottish 
song from the fact that the Scotchman carries such a 
large fund of fine native humor. His hearers are on the 
look-out for more, and they are in ecstacy while it lasts. 
Instrumental music in good hands gives an excellent 
sauce. The whole tones their system ; they feel better at 
their daily work, and wonder at the sudden change. 



HOURS WITii THB SCOTCH FOLK 163 

There will be little or no malaria where people sing 
heartily. Much of the great secret lies in the deep nasal 
breathing of heaven's purest air. I do not think that in 
the whole range of our innocent enjoyment we can find 
a healthier or more bracing tonic than good Scottish song. 

Certainly song possesses a sanitary advantage. My 
physical frame, as well as my moral make-up, have 
gained just in the ratio of the adaptedness of song, or 
even the dance. How impressive is the magnetism of 
some minds! Mr. Robert Scott, of Brooklyn, or Mr. 
Robert Maitland, of Passaic, would not, under any con- 
sideration, have their names in print for the public eye; 
but men that know how to cheer and interest humanity 
must be known. 

Take the case of that joyous little Scotch woman, 
Mrs. Daniel J. Bremner, of Brooklyn; her presence alone 
is an inspiration ; but when she wakens into song and 
dialogue, the whole place is wrapped up with enthusiasm. 
Also in the case of Mrs. G-eo. Blackman, Brooklyn, lineal 
descendant of Flora MacDonald, whose dulcet strains 
are singularly captivating in Scottish song. So with 
scores of others, who keep in the private walks of life, 
but are not the less — thanks be to Heaven — benefactors 
of society. 

Music and song are the divine keys for opening up the 
large chambers of the mind, that the sunshine of life may 
flood the place. 



i64 IvIFB SKETCHES 

HYMNS OF ROBERT BURNS. 

Dear Burns, we often speak thy praise 

In song, in festival, in story, 
Unmindful of thy sweetest lays, 

When faith and reverence marked thy glory. 

What grander for a human heart 
Than thy loved lines we sang in meeting— 

"O Thou great Being what Thou art !" 
That set the languid pulses beating. 

Strange, wondrous soul ! we look above. 
As thou didst look when thine endeavor 

Touched the dear chord of Christian love. 
And sang of Him who loves forever. 

From Pharisaic cant 't were wise 
Could churches but be liberated, 

And place again before our eyes 
Thy thought so nobly consecrated. 

As for thy frailties, Robert Burns, 
We bow before the Hand that made thee. 

Great genius ever soars by turns 
From the bright spectrum to the shady. 

'Tis true we each one have our ills, 
Our shame, our blindness, our disaster. 

Some hymns give nothing but the chills. 
But Burns gives honor to the Master. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE MARRIAGE BUREAU. 

Perhaps in the wide realm of sociology there can be 
found no more interesting theme than this of marriage. 
When I found that I had to face the stubborn issues of 
life, my reason and my judgment could not agree like 
good brothers in this matter. All the helps of logic and 
morals could not aid me, and I had to fall back defeated 
at the prospect that not in ethics or conventionalism 
could I find standing ground. For it is too true that this 
continual cry of inability and depravity has kept man 
back in civilization. They have been like ropes strangling 
him, so that he cannot see his footing. It is terrible to 
think what one-sided and narrowed views men have 
taken of the Bible, the great mirror of the human soul. 
The map of humanity appeared so black and disfigured 
through Pharisaism and animalism, that I must confess 
I stood crestfallen. I boldly met the fight, and to some 
extent have triumphed in my position. 

The fact — so unexpected, that I must cite it here — came 
upon me in all its vividness one evening when taking my 
accustomed w^alk. A short distance in front of me I saw 
a lady of very stout proportions steering along as if for 
her life, and I thought of the old proverb, the best piece 



i66 LIFK SKETCHES 

of furniture in a house is a virtuous woman. "I shall 
soon pass her at anyrate," said I to myself; but as I 
neared her it was distressing to witness the heat that 
wreathed her countenance. She eyed me somewhat 
tartly, and wishing her good evening T made a little extra 
exertion in my gait. But there was no ground gained, 
as she did the same. I saw there was a dilemma brood- 
ing, and as I am an isolated man, and pay little attention 
to the courtesies of our city life, I had no thought of 
speaking first, — a matter which, on after consideration I 
much regretted, as then I could have turned the tide of 
conversation more to my standpoint. But I was suddenly 
taken off my guard when she passionately blurted out : 
" O, you must be a perfect bon vivant, the way you go it." 

Of course the utterance was rude, and I might have 
flung it back with more propriety upon the speaker, but 
then I know what heavy overheated dowagers are, as I 
have met them more than once. My first reflection w^as 
that she must have taken me for a young fellow of twenty 
years; so I begged pardon, walked beside her, and in 
opening up some healthy conversation, said that if it 
would be agreeable we might slacken our pace a little, 
for I am not accustomed to travel fast when walking 
with a lady. 

"Thanks," she said, " I am glad of your company. I 
had been hoping to get to my home," naming her resi- 
dence, " before nine o'clock. But I know you. I have 



THE MARRIAGE BUREAU 167 

seen you a dozen times, and yet I have never seen you 
without a smile upon your face. Please tell me how 
is this ?" 

*'Well now," said I, "you have asked me a question 
that I somewhat hesitate to answer: for could you but 
see or imagine the arena of diflSculty and suffering 
through which I have passed you might probably mis- 
construe my language." A conception sprang up in my 
mind which I differentiated to suit mj^ purpose, so I 
replied: "The explanation is just this: the Almighty 
has placed me on the earth ; I have but recently opened 
mine eyes, and find that I am in the Garden of Eden : 
the fact that there is throat-cutting, and drunkenness 
and lust all around me does not affect my argument the 
least. I love my Creator, and that's the reason I can 
afford to smile." 

I was drawing her out. " O, my dear sir," said she, 
' ' pardon my insolence when we met. But your philosophy 
is too high — it is too sacred for me. You speak the truth 
as plainly as it is written in the skies ; but the whole 
coloring of our institutions has a vulgar and pessimistic 
bias which is taken from our religious teaching, and it is 
this low, ignoble aspect of Christianity that injures 
Christian minds. I find so much of the mean and vulgar 
in my surroundings that my tastes, I am afraid, at times 
run very low. And when I speak of mean and vulgar 
I mean amongst the educated as well as the ignorant. 



i68 . IvIFE SKETCHES 

Do you think it possible that Christianity can offer some 
plan for the thorough happiness of our race, and where 
is it to be found ?" 

She struck the chord, and I dared not hesitate in 
answering. "Yes," I said, "the whole solution of this 
question is found in the coming study of prenatalism. 
Here the sacredness of marriage will find its highest 
ideal. We are only touching the first letter of its alpha- 
bet. As we advance in our progress taking up the new 
human forces before their appearance, we will find that 
this great subject will affect not less the question of 
mental weakness than hereditary taint. This great pro- 
spective arbiter will give such basis at the outset that not 
only man's physical but to a large extent his moral nature 
will be under healthy control. It v/ould certainly be 
wise for clergymen and others to abstain from perform- 
ing the marriage ceremony without a very close study of 
physiology, and the relations that affect the moral and 
physical being. With careful insight much of the 
]phenomena of disease can be seen in advance. x^Lnd if a 
class of therapeutics and theology could be established 
in all colleges to meet the solution of this question, 
scrofula, epilepsy, imbecility — diseases now so common, 
would be largely eliminated. God has planted a divine 
mark on every human soul. And even amongst our 
religious teachers there are those who cannot trace it or 
distinguish it. There is consequently much conflict — 



THE MARRIAGE BUREAU 169 

even antagonism between that divine seal and the 
worker. But the day is not distant when a divine chord 
shall echo from conscience to revelation with a spon- 
taneity of which we have now no conception." 

Now I must be very matter-of-fact in this paper. I 
have no desire to quarrel with Providence for having 
provisioned me with a strangely sympathetic nature. 
When I see people wisely rejoicing I must rejoice with 
them; but when I see them suffering, wisely or unwisely, 
I must suffer with them also. There was one faculty 
that I found imbuing my whole being, and gathering 
with the ripeness of years — to some extent the gift of 
prescience — that I must honestly confess disturbed me 
for a very long time. Would I bury it and throw it aside 
as a useless talent, or strive to find out by careful medi- 
tation its value in my life struggle ? This quality of 
seeing is not common in man ; or if common, men must 
indeed have the most callous hearts to disregard it. 
When I found that my position in the church placed 
much that was new and singular in my pathway, I soon 
realized the fact that but for the most uncommon shrewd- 
ness of disposition I should be miserable. But no, thought 
I; the conventionalisms of society will not shackle me. 
The tree grows in beauty and strength ; I am also a tree, 
but something more ; I must grow wiser and stronger, 
not from what man but what nature has dowered me. 

On the evening of my ordination, therefore, when my 



I70 LIFK SKETCHES 

certificate was placed in my hand, giving me not only 
the right to celebrate the ordinances of the church, but 
also the seal of the State as my legal authority, and 
when I was complimented that now I had a good oppor- 
tunity to make a fine sum in marriage fees, I threw back 
a rejoinder that this did not affect my mental balance 
one way or another; that being in the possession of a 
very sensitive conscience, I was bound to see that it 
should have its just rights. I therefore resolved for 
peace of mind, and the necessity of calm, childlike sleep 
at night that I should never celebrate the ordinance of 
marriage on individuals without three weeks' lease of 
time for the purpose of fathoming their moral, and to 
some extent their physical capacities for union. Men 
will say that I have lost by the process, but in the higher 
outlook I have gained fifty per cent, where I have lost one. 

Some years ago I was harassed and disturbed on this 
matter by a professed purveyor of some kind or another, 
who had the effrontery to throw the law in my face, and 
tell me that I should be forced before the bar of this city 
to state why I should not marry persons of full age, 
having guarantees of character, witnesses, etc. As I 
considered this an intrusion on my right of ofiice, I paid 
no attention to it. 

It might have been perhaps about ten days after when 
a lady and a gentleman of about nineteen and twenty- 
three paid me a visit, requesting marriage, as the gentle- 
man should be leaving the city the following day. 



THE MARRIAGE BUREAU 171 

Although the odor of very bad liquor annoyed me, 
this was not the worst evil. I am a physiognomist to 
some extent, and I saw that it was better to be point 
blank, and give some of my reasons why I should cer- 
tainly not perform the ceremony. This I did, but my 
argument was powerless oq the man. When he allowed 
his passion to get the better of him, and uttered some 
very impolite language, I beckoned him into an ad- 
joining room. 

"Why," said I, "Nature has never called you to 
marry this woman. There are various reasons; I see 
some of them — ^but one prominent fact is that you drink 
liquor heavily; the other fact is that this woman is a 
frail thin creature — she will suffer much, and I will have 
no hand in her murder." Somebody performed the 
ceremony for them ; he went on with his drunkenness 
and diabolism. His wife died within a year. It would 
be useless for me to occupy space with an account of the 
manner in which I have been pestered by such characters. 
Now there are some " holy terrors" amongst us just as 
well as yourselves. Not very long ago I was in company 
with a clergyman who in a pulpit or prayer-meeting can 
hold his place well, and drive the audience rightly to 
tears at times. Well, he went on describing — for he is a 
natural genius— a tussle of some kind he had seen on the 
street. ' ' The fellow," he said, •' gave the man a terrible 
welt near the epigastrium, ricochetting with his right on 



172 IvIFE SKETCHES 

the nasal dexter, closing the peeper and making the 
claret" — I heard no more, as my fingers were immediately 
in my ears, and I felt that I could sink in the ground. 
But then I thought, suppose he did say it, he couldn't 
have spoken of the nasty business in more appropriate 
language. ' ' Ross," said he, "how about the marriages ? 
I made thirty-five dollars last week — twenty-five in 
one night." 

"All right," said I, " I haven't made sixty cents last 
week in marriages. But look here, Brown, I see farther 
than you. I weigh things." 

" O weigh the deuce, men must live." Well, he laughed 
loud and long, and I had to laugh with him. 

In our city of Brooklyn, not long ago, a lady and 
gentleman called late at night on an undertaker inquiring 
where they might be married at once. He telephoned to 
the rich church pastor, who replied, ' ' Is there money in 
it ? If not, I cannot get up out of my bed." "O I believe 
that it is all right," said the undertaker. The party 
went up to the house, were united in marriage, paid 
twelve dollars. Next day the minister called on the 
undertaker. "Say," said he, "if you have any more 
twelve-dollar marriages — the work of eight minutes — 
send them to me" — then turned off, proud as Lucifer. 

But enough of this diabolical business. In all this you 
will see that a certain lapse of time between the applica- 
tion and marriage will be of incalculable service. It will 



THE MARRIAGE BUREAU 173 

enable us to ferret out a whole train of circumstances 
that will be of benefit to ourselves as well as to them. 
We cannot shut our eves to the fact that even a week's 
examination of character and idiosyncrasy would pre- 
vent many an hour of useless suffering. And it is ex- 
pected, with some justice, of clergymen that they should 
be apt in gauging something of the fitness of the appli- 
cants. I have been looking over this matter pretty 
carefully; and know, and the people also know, that 
the good old custom of publishing bans two or three 
weeks ahead of marriage would prove a comparatively 
healthy measure. The time given for inquiry and re- 
flection would prevent much suffering, and save us 
from many of those harrowing divorce cases which 
make us the shame of the whole world. No man in 
society — not even a lawyer or physician — has the ad- 
vantage of a clergyman in studying those concrete 
phenomena in the faces of mankind that appeal to us 
with a persistency that none but the weak-hearted can 
disregard. How many of these faces tell us at the altar: 
"Do not pretend to join that nature with the other, be- 
cause God has separated them that they can never be 
joined;" but the paltry five, tenor twenty dollars rescues 
the action from debasement. To me there is something 
singularly debasing in such an action. Our formula of 
marriage involves our right to look for some fitness for 
union ; and, with very rare exceptions, the rapid misery 



174 LIFE SKETCHES 

and disgrace of unhappy married life reflects upon us as 
celebrants with something of the severity of a legal 
punishment. The sacredness of the marriage vow is 
such as certainly to demand an allotment of time for 
a proper examination into the claims of the applicants. 
Now there is a very patent truth regarding this work 
of marriage that must not be lost sight of. And that 
is the advantage opening before us. I am speaking 
here of that dignified, inherent sense of duty which 
clings to a true man like his own flesh. It seems to 
me also that a clergyman above all other men on this 
wide world is provisioned — if he be a sincere man — 
with a wonderful capacity for gauging character and 
physical equipment from the fact that his communion- 
ship with the Divine leads him to look deeply into the 
wants of his own brotherhood. For where men are 
swayed by passions, their usefulness is curbed; where 
there is such a thing in the human soul as consecration 
to Divine purpose, that life's usefulness is unbounded — 
there are no impediments in his way, and Nature is for- 
ever unlocking doors and opening windows that he may 
peer farther every succeeding day into the rich beauties 
of her temple. And there is another advantage, and that 
is in cultivating a healthy spirit of observation. Cir- 
cumstanced as we are, the children of amazing privi- 
leges, it is absolutely necessary that all ministers and 
leaders in the church enter daily into the school of 



THE MARRIAGE BUREAU 175 

human nature, from infancy upward. For nothing is 
more true in this strange world than the constant appear- 
ance of men and women of remarkable genius and keen 
perception flying off into tangents, or hiding themselves 
away from the anxious crowd, or involving themselves 
in the most demoniacal affections. Now these are the 
very beings who, could they lay their heart to the prop- 
agation of truth, would astonish the age with their 
successes. But so ignorant even to-day are we of the 
formation of character in childhood, or even the deter- 
mined expression of Nature in teaching the child, that 
with all our Christian training we throw odium upon 
certain of our own offspring. Wisdom and simplicity 
are the great bulwarks of great natures. The angel and 
the infant are ever represented in our purest and best 
society. 

What a burning disgrace to our American civilization 
to-day is this fearful distemper of divorce. There's no 
necessity under heaven of running into this scandal if 
the ceremony of marriage were attended to with pre- 
caution and with that prescience which is the prerog- 
ative of the careful observer and student. But the 
almighty dollar is in the way ; and where the avenues 
to progress and well-being are so blocked with the 
direst materialism, society will show a retrograde ten- 
dency that subsequent reformations will find it difficult 
to remove. 



176 LIFE SKETCHES 

And there is yet a deeper and richer meaning here. 
It is in the home where we should find the culmination 
of all human blessing. Anglo-Saxon speech gave no 
nobler bequest to history than when with prophetic 
insight she forged this golden ingot of thought to bind 
the whole human brotherhood. And in this great era 
of science we may believe that the noblest minds, 
who are working for the interests of home, will treat 
with the noblest and purest consideration the question 
of marriage. 

Woman's rights ? Well, 'tis a theme 
Much on earth, hut yet a dream. 
Here man acts as lord of all. 
Marries, and thence casts a pall 
O'er his wife to hide her worth 
As his equal on the earth. 
Patience, mercy, love are hers. 
One with Nature's worshipers. 
But poor jealous man gets mad, 
Keeps his little victim sad. 
Cannot hear to hear her sing, 
Though she soars on angel wing ; 
Cannot hear to give the space 
God allots her in the race. 
Yes, the damsels seek their due. 
Look for comforts while they strew 
Their sweet graces like the flower. 
Which man, monarch of the hour, 
Will not have. He swears he's hest. 
And he's bound to he the guest 
Of the gods. With all his freaks. 
Bum, tobacco, snuff— he seeks 
Ghoulish freedom with the bores, 
And expectorates and snores 
Like a bull— oft beats his wife. 
Making quite a hell of life. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL. 

The greatest argument ever raised by free-thinkers 
and also by ordinary plain thinkers against ecclesiasti- 
cal dogma is that her anathemas, so full of vengeance 
and hell-fire, have hidden the beauty of the Lord and 
made the seekers of truth ever blush for shame. There 
is no difference — when one arrives at the altar of Truth, 
where purity and chastity are seen — between the physi- 
cal and moral abuses. Many a lady and gentleman 
walk the streets for a breath of fresh air, and the 
showers of blasphemy and obscenity that assail them 
(though not directly aimed at themselves), by affecting 
the sensitive and moral fibre of their make-up, pave 
the way for ill health ; and these same parties will tell 
you that had they been beaten physically they could 
not have suffered more. And the most cruel and pain- 
ful of these expressions is where the name of the 
Divine Being of Love is bandied about. It is a crush- 
ing rebuke on our Christianity that we will not get 
away from this kind of fetichism. What a noble lesson 
we learn here from the Jews, whose respect for the 
Divine name is the mantle of their virtue, and it will 
be found that in the long run their moral character 



178 LIFE SKETCHES 

holds high vantage ground when compared with other 
peoples. Isn't this a fearful devil, this blasphemy? And 
if Christianity would only set her hand to it, the evil 
would largely die out. 

At Poughkeepsie a child of fifteen lay dying of lung 
complaint in an ill- ventilated and foul-smelling room. 

''I can't stay here one minute," said I to the 
mother : ' ' you must open your windows for air, or I 
shall be sick too on your hands." 

' ' But the doctor says she must be kept warm. " 

* ' Cover her with all the clothes you can ; but don't let 
her breathe this tainted air over and over again — that's 
what's kilhng the child. She wants sweet air." 

Suddenly two men entered ; they took no notice of 
the virus in the atmosphere, and after asking the 
invalid a couple of doctrinal questions fell on their 
knees in prayer. Had I my way, I would have grasped 
them by their whiskers and turned them into the street. 
They did shout, and lustily too; and the air became 
absolutely gangrenous, as you will notice in rooms 
where a peculiar rancidity is afloat. I followed with 
a short prayer — very short — as I was obliged to rush 
for the door to eject the thick, poisoned saliva that 
nearly choked me. The child died a couple of days 
after, and, as the family was in comfortable circum- 
stances, she might easily have been saved. 

Devils of this kind have wrought much mischief; 



SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL 179 

but I have done some good and saved not a few lives 
by advocating, in my short stay here, the healthfulness, 
the vitality and full play of pure air in ventilation. 
Often have I gone into houses and factories sweltering 
in putridity, to meet insult and blasphemy; where a 
few months after I might go and remain for hours 
with nothing less than a sense of thankfulness at the 
blessed change. Disease and decline play fearful havoc 
in unclean homes. 

But recently I paid somewhat like five hundred visits 
to the tenement homes of New York, west side, between 
Fifteenth and Fiftieth streets. In fully forty per cent, 
of these visits, I have started for the street with a 
sense of sickness and disagreeable nausea that told me 
m.any of these tenements were cesspools and not homes. 
Many a time, on the door opening, I was obliged to say, 
"Excuse me, I may call again;" the suffocating odors 
hardly allowing me to speak. And to look upon the 
pallid, wasting forms of many of the inmates, creeping 
slowly along in the midst of a living death, obliged day 
and night to hive in these black, unventilated holes! 
Oh the horrors of the spider-flat! Like prisons, one 
over another — tier above tier. Alas for the poor man 
in our large cities with his crowded, airless home! 
There are keen, strange natures, so sensitive to the 
aroma of health, that they would have an arm wrenched 
from the socket sooner than enter some of these abodes. 



i8o LIFE SKETCHES 

And this in the midst of such a civilized country as 
America. Is this the sacrifice to Moloch? Yes, our 
"refined" Christianity allows living men, women and 
children to be thrust into the burning lap of the god of 
gold. Why send them to cesspools, and why strive to 
bribe our government to sanction this despicable infamy? 

There's a devil for you, Messrs. Rockefeller and 
Carnegie — you say that it is a disgrace for a man to die 
rich ; then here is room for a godlike display of your 
wealth. Pull down these rookeries, and build decent 
ventilated homes, and civilization will give you the 
highest regards. 

What is consumption? There is no excuse whatever 
in our modern society for allowing ourselves to be eaten 
up by this fell destroyer. Pay attention to your deep 
nasal breathing in clear air; live and labor in well- 
ventilated rooms ; take all the outside physical exercise 
— especially walking — you can ; eat heartily and slowly 
of good food ; always keep a splendid temper, and for 
heaven's sake avoid nostrums as you do poison, and 
those hateful pamphlets on disease scattered through 
the streets of our large cities by libertines — and you 
need not fear consumption. Even if this devil be hered- 
itary, you will kill it — it will not kill you. 

Look at our insane asylums. Of our modern civi- 
lization they form the greatest piece of burlesque ever 
thi-ust in the face of Heaven. Thousands upon 



SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL i8i 

thousands are dying there who from sheer passivity 
and indolence have become crazed, where strenuous 
phj^sical exercise under God's blue canopy, and the 
thousand ]3leasures of change would transform them 
into new beings. Could our governments realize the fact 
that a few of our wasted millions might be used to- 
wards giving asylum inmates all the outside air and 
exercise they need, what a saving of life! What an 
honor to humanity! When corporations and associ- 
ations understand the law of sympathy in its higher 
relations, they will save one thousand men where they 
save ten now. With very few exceptions we are 
as ignorant of the anticipations of nature as the world 
generations before Aristotle was born. 

Look at the adulterations creeping into our food, and 
our municipal governments so inefficient and feeble that 
they can no more stop them than stop the north wind. 
See the concoctions mixed with our wines and liquors, 
shortening life at the most alarming rate ever known ; 
and though travelers are constantly telling us that 
European beverages are never followed by this terrible 
mortpJity, so puerile are we in our respect for moral 
legislation, that we allow the curse to go on, even while 
it is eating into the very fabric of our personal liberties. 
Pretty bad devils, no mistake. 

Look at the chase after gold. From the judge to the 
artisan society has never seen the like. While in Hemp- 



i82 LIFE SKETCHES 

stead I called in the Inquirer office, and met an intelligent 
Christian Brooklyn gentleman. "Don't say a word, my 
brother," said he, "about the church. I have been 
through it all, from the Sunday-school all the way up. 
It's the almighty dollar the church is after ; the minister 
covets the dollar, the revivalist insists that he must have 
his one or two hundred dollars in a church before a soul 
will be converted ; then he will seek for the salvation of 
quite a number." My God, has it come to this? I 
changed the subject; I wished to hear no more. But, 
reader, there is some truth in it. We cannot be happy 
nor healthy when we bow down and worship gold, in- 
stead of keeping it in its appointed place. 

There are men who are more wicked than they are 
insane. Such are those who lumber the market with 
poor goods at a high price, and send hundreds of ignorant 
men and women into consumption through their shoddy 
leather and dry goods. The tea merchant who passes 
old dust on the purchaser, after he has had her custom 
for a little while, should be severely punished; while 
the doctor or board of health officer who has allowed 
himself to be bribed to keep silence regarding adulterated 
milk or feeding of infants with the milk of swilled, putrid 
cows, should be tied to a whipping-post, and receive one 
hundred lashes for his cruelty. 

Why ? Because God sends us here to live. And it is 
absolutely necessary to secure the best possible diet to 



SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL 183 

rear healthy children. Think of our future legislators 
in the great congress at Washington growing up on 
swill-fed, putrid cow's milk. Their great enactments 
and proceedings would soon have a swill-fed taste, as 
some of them, we read, have to-day, and the country 
would go to pieces. O no. A robust, healthy diet can 
alone make good strong men. 

I was once witness of a scene so terrible, that I must 
recount it. A sad degenerate weakling found himself 
at length at Death's door, and a messenger was on my 
track. Almost immediately at his bedside, I saw that 
nothing could be done. Hasty consumption had seized 
him like a beast of prey ; and while his eyeballs seemed 
bursting from their sockets, the rattle in his throat was 
heavy, and filled every room. In his delirium he did 
not notice me ; but a restorative seemed to arouse him 
to consciousness. " Am I going to hell ?" said he, turning 
to me, and pitifully bursting into tears. Then maddened 
with anger he cried, "You have sent me there. You 
ministers will go to hell because you have not warned 
me against the glass. I have heard thousands of sermons 
and not one word against liquor. Who should be cursed, 
you or I? Don't pray," said he, "lam going to hell, 
and shall meet you there. " Then he raved in unconscious 
delirium, while I left the house. Can any one doubt that 
there was a devil there ? Let the reader take note. 
Then there are the little devils that harass literary 



i84 LIFE SKETCHES 

men. In the vestibule of truth, all throughout the 
universe, there is a corresponding unity as the children 
of Nature rise in the scale of endowment. Now on the 
earth you proudly say that the author is the most blessed 
of all men. He is a king, and all that. But I ask you 
authors, why do you so dearly caress those little scorpions, 
jealousy and bitterness ? How often do we find a nest of 
hornets where we naturally expected doves of peace ! 
And your scions, young and tender, are fed on the same 
subsoil, and the air is constantly lurid with the flames 
of passion. 

Then there is the propensity that so many of us 
writers have for the little something as we say, ' ' with 
a stick in it," to titillate the idea. You may rest assured 
that when Mother Nature draws her veil gently over 
you while you are writing, she is not hinting that you 
should take brandy, wine or similar concoctions, but 
that you had better lay your head on her bosom, and 
take a little nap. That's the old, safe method. And 
you, Earthians, are not called to charm Mother Nature 
out of her idea — you may drift into weakness, lunacy, 
suicide — but you cannot change her. 

A great many well-meaning people strive to make out 
that the Supreme Being is a devil. It was no wonder 
indeed that Jonathan Edwards lost his head at times as 
he pictured the scenes of the redeemed in heaven and 
the terrors of the damned in hell fire in each other's view. 



SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL 185 

When I was about four years of age my school 
teacher one day led an unruly child near a large stove 
glowing with intense heat, and as she opened the door, 
and we all looked at the seething flames, ' 'This, " said 
she to the child, ' ' is not nearly as bad as the fire in hell 
that God has made for wicked children like you." I 
looked upon it with a terrible intensity. Here started 
my first drift into infidelity. For years I was anxious 
to find some place where I might hide from God. What 
a monster ! O, if I could only hide from Him ! But as 
the years crept along, and a new life possessed my affec- 
tion, my intuition laid hold of another voice — that to live 
was happiness; or, conversely, that in fact life was an 
emanation from the Almighty. 

An instance comes forward of a doctor of di^anity — a 
heavy, globose sort of a man, well known in our midst 
— writing for one of the quarterlies a few years since a 
paper in favor of the doctrine of everlasting punishment, 
which he had a perfect right to do ; but he seems to have 
possessed some other right in his conversations with men 
to proclaim the contrary doctrine. This may suffice as 
an illustration on the theological side. It shows that 
the progress of true thinking is hampered through vacil- 
lating minds wheedling around to every point of the 
compass for their bread and butter. But there has been 
a little devil there nevertheless. 
The evil I speak of is singularly common with political 



i86 LIFE SKETCHES 

mountebanks, who cannot for their life stick to their own 
texts on politics, manufactures, etc., but enter the domain 
of eschatology and kindred matters, where they are a 
thousand leagues from home. There are two or three 
United States senators just now making themselves the 
laughing stock of sensible people by a relentless gush of 
this kind. The question of the future life is taken up by 
these men for the purpose of banter, and their funeral 
orations and eulogies are clothed in a false selvage of 
eloquence that the people really cannot tell whether they 
are speaking of horse-racing or heaven. The habit to 
some extent is creeping in our pulpits. And this is not 
surprising when we consider that pulpit auctioneering is 
becoming too general. Think of it a moment. 

"Here is a man of splendid parts — how much for this 
man ? Look at him well. His prayer, speech, illustra- 
tion are all full of power ; he will have honest men around 
him — is not afraid to condemn evil from the pulpit. His 
whole life is thrown out for the comfort of the poor, and 
he will not subsidize the glory of God to the opinions of 
men — ^how much?" 

"Five hundred dollars." 

' ' How much for this young man — bright parts, splendid 
reasoning power, beautiful features ? Will not say one 
word against the devilism of the liquor traffic, nor against 
pools, nor gambling, nor political corruption, nor bribery 
— how much ?" 

"Two — three thousand dollars." 



SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL 187 

Don't tell me it isn't so ; I have seen it. The system is 
growing, but it is nevertheless obnoxious. Facial blem- 
ishes, or asinine ears, or too prominent aquiline nose 
form the subject of comment, but not one word on the 
discourse. Change is necessary, and another man must 
go on the auction block. His material isn't worth a 
penny ; but his bearing is charming — his physique is fair 
and beautiful. He gets the highest bid. 

The world is filled with demons. Civilization has 
a very hard task before her. But she has her compensa- 
tions. Little by little light is breaking over the world, 
and lurid dogma must go. The libel is too often thrust 
in the face of the Creator that we are all weak and fail- 
ing because He has made us feeble, imperfect creatures. 
This is an atrocious falsehood. It has been ringing 
through the centuries to the disgrace of man. And our 
progeny come along, and drink it in as they drink water. 

Can we really ever enter the sanctuary of our Father's 
house without admitting the existence of good wherever 
it may be found ? I should prove base to the glories of 
my mental heritage and the higher sovereignty which 
permits my existence, could I not see that in the clear 
sunshine of heaven and in the sweet sunshine of human 
liberty, there is a relation that binds us all together as 
children, irrespective of creed, circumstance or color. 

Not to mention the bribers, the political tricksters, the 
policy kings, and a thousand other devils, I must close. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE LABOR QUESTION. 

There is very much to be said on the labor question. 
And one diflSculty looms here. Some make it quite a 
class affair to be a laborer ; they say that officials, clergy- 
men, lawyers, etc., are not laborers. Then what are 
they ? Mere nonentities. Queen Victoria was nothing 
less than a good laborer, as her son King Edward is 
to-day. President Roosevelt isn't too proud to be called 
a laborer, nor Bishop Potter, Lyman Abbott, and others. 
Any true honorable worker for the good of society is a 
laborer, and the world is beginning to recognize the term 
in that light. And for this very reason the ordinary 
workman will be treated better than ever before. We 
are all laborers on life's ladder, — all brothers on higher 
or lower grades. 

In my pilgrimage among the mechanical and artisan 
laborers, I have alighted upon four families that may be 
taken as class types of the workers of our civilization. 
In their youthhood they were much alike. In their 
homes, attitudes, affections there was but little difference. 
Each loved the other, and would wade through fire and 
blood to protect the other: but some strange potency 
seized them with the years, so that instead of drawing 



THE LABOR QUESTION 189 

nearer, as inculcated by the teachings of love and the 
principles of reason, they diverged further and further 
apart — and dislike, hate and revenge rose up like mighty 
walls between them. 

Anthony may be taken as a fair type of the simplest 
class. He was a quiet, harmless boy at school; but there 
were many circumstances which God only knows that 
had strange influence over his destiny. He is now a day- 
laborer, or longshoreman, or miner; his home is but a 
name, as starvation constantly stares him in the face, 
and makes sad inroads in the family. We call at the 
house, and Mary, his wife, salutes us. Did you ever see 
a kinder soul ? It is no wonder if she be rough and 
quick-tempered at times; but with all that, she has some- 
thing of the Christ spirit within her, and her heart warms 
towards you, while she would divide with you her last 
crust. Her children are away at tobacco factories and 
sewing rooms, making thirty and sixty cents a day. 
Poor starved creatures ! The horse in the stable is fed 
much better than they. But don't say a word against 
these children, if you are a man; for if they do swear 
and drink liquor, they are driven down to the very pit 
of hell, and they cannot help it. Here is Dante's Inferno, 
without the infamy that engendered it. And this in 
America, the land of liberty. 

Let us go and talk with Anthony digging at the road- 
side. His eyes brighten up as if some angel had come 



I90 LIFE SKETCHES 

down from heaven; but otherwise they are lustreless. 
You do not say much to him. There is only one friend 
who cares anything about him now — his wife. Society 
has crushed him under its heel like a viper. 

Richard represents the second type. His parents gave 
him some little education, or sensibly taught him a trade, 
and nature has gifted him with a fair share of qualities 
for his success in life. But the more he adheres to these 
convictions of nature, he loses caste in society, till cun- 
ning and immoral espionage seek their place. But will 
he court them? No! Richard cannot run in such dis- 
reputable ruts, and shrinks back to his quiet vocation, 
and will be glad to suffer for the sake of his own man- 
hood, even if society despise him. He makes but little 
profession of religion, yet he has much of the vitality of 
it in his nature. You venture into his home, and his 
heart stings him immediately if he does not refresh you 
before you depart. No matter for the appearances, no 
matter for the asperities, Christ has visited that home, 
and been a guest there. The man may be indiscreet, but 
at least he will be charitable. Avarice is something that 
he disdains like the sting of the cobra. Yet the world 
rides over him, and grinds him nearly to powder. His 
modesty is a boon to him, yet he is shunned and neglected 
because he cannot court presumption. 

William is a very fair type of the third class — a 
splendid go-ahead sort of a man, and learns to keep aloof 



THE LABOR QUESTION 191 

from others just as soon as he gets raore confidence in 
himself. He is on the road for money-making, and has 
certain methods which are commendable, even though his 
vision becomes blinded at times to the needs of those 
around him. His home is elegant and comfortable ; and 
he can afford to meet its demands without any great 
strain on his purse. William notices that somehow he 
is drifting away from his brother, the longshoreman, 
though at school they were the greatest chums. His 
brother John is a professor, Henry is a doctor, and 
Marcus is a lawyer. The mercantile brain of William 
keeps him ahead of the others in financial matters ; yet 
there is the best of friendship, for the culture of philos- 
ophy makes up in happiness what they miss in money. 
There is one thing that annoys William more than all the 
others. He is put to terrible temptation; where he is 
able to withstand and be a man, he is the very pattern 
of the noblest manhood; but when he misses his way, and 
falls down and idolizes the dollar, money rolls in, and 
Christ goes out. 

Rufus is a well-marked type of the fourth class. When 
at school, Richard, William and Anthony were his play- 
mates. While William and Richard were reflective but 
slow in figures, Rufus was away up in interest, and cal- 
culating even then about making a few pennies at school. 
Still the boys played together and thought not of the 
future. But by and by Rufus is getting rich, and Anthony 



192 LIFE SKETCHES 

is getting poor. Rufus understands all about it, but 
Anthony does not. Anthony goes on digging ditches, 
till one day he falls dead at his work. Does Rufus go to 
his funeral ? O no. Instead of that, he goes on through 
the machinery of his curious arithmetic stealing land, 
and paying a big price to some fellows to legalize his 
depredations. He builds large edifices, and cumbers the 
whole literature of his plans with such technicalities, 
that all the Anthonys are wiped out as if they were 
serpents. Even William feels the blow. He and Richard 
had an eye on some nice little bits of land, secured a 
lease, and rented the property out on shares to benefit 
the community as well as themselves. But Rufus, as 
coldblooded as a murderer, comes along and gobbles it 
all up at a great price, ruining his brothers in an hour, 
who on their side had been very naturally thinking that 
as Rufus became rich, life would be easier and more com- 
fortable for all the others. So it would if Christ had 
been sought by Rufus as by Richard and Anthony. And 
how civilization can commend Rufus's methods while 
professing Christianity is the mystery of mysteries. 

A trend towards communism is certainly necessary to 
see harmony established between the families. There 
must be room for decent equality. Nature wants it, and 
we have a right to it. No man with his jewelled millions 
has a right to crush his brother to the dust, who with 
nature's grand certificate of mind is richer than the other. 



THE LABOR QUESTION 193 

Monopolies of this kind have a brutalizing tendency, 
which always results in sore reaction and retaliation just 
as sure as man exists. 

Some twenty-three years ago I had been visiting a 
Society of Friends at Eingsbridge, near New York city. 
It was midnight when I left them and on my way to 
the train, which was some two miles or more off, I was 
suddenly seized by three men, who violently dragged 
me along, demanded with oaths my money, and threat- 
ened death should I make resistance. They wrenched me 
so violently that I cried out, and begged them as men to 
tell me what was the matter. They were victims of 
some malfeasance, that was evident. One was depraved 
with drink, one seemed idiotic, and the third ventured 
on a spirit of braggadocio which I saw was foreign to his 
nature. I gave them what money I had, but I may say 
that the most of it was returned before we parted. Said 
I in conversation, "we are all brothers — why can't we 
live as brethren ? I was not afraid in taking this lonely 
walk to-night. I know that you have feeling as well as 
myself. Tell me all — are you in distress ? Have you 
any families — have you any work ?" 

I found out that these men had employment, but they 
were goaded to despair. One was an engineer — he was 
aware of the danger of drink stealing upon him ; and one 
was a pressman, whose long days of fifteen to eighteen 
hours were killing him. He was well paid; but the 



194 LIFE SKETCHES 

slavery made him hate his employer. They gave me the 

address of their workshops, which I soon visited. 

It was not long before I found out the trouble. The 
heavy, stagnated atmosphere — the heat and sense of 
oppression were intolerable. Pale feverish groups passed 
me by with such careworn eyes and lacklustre faces that 
were bitterly painful. When they spoke, they became 
restless and watchful that no superior should see them. 
When their dinner bell rang the rush was like the roar 
of waters, while it was pitiful to see the emotion of the 
women as they tried to muster strength in their rigid 
limbs that they might go and breathe God's outer air. 

Here was the secret of the trouble with my antagonists. 
They had money— but hatred and hostility and revenge 
grew in their minds because they were daily stripped of 
that which was better than money — their very life. 

So, reader, we may not at all agree in what I .may 
say regarding labor and capital. To tell the honest 
truth, I have steered clear of this very complex question. 
And it is becoming more so every year. Some of the 
reasons that tend to this I will touch upon, and tbrow 
out a few salutary hints from experiences through which 
I have passed. 

In this consideration let us not lose sight of the fact 
that God has given us life that we may live it ; and He 
has given us capacity for action that we may enjoy it. 
By combining rightly these two essentials in our make- 



THE LABOR QUESTION 195 

up, we find the resultant in labor that is healthy even 
if it be hard. 

There is one factor in the future discussion of this 
question that is destined to have large place — and that is 
the life element. At present we seem to think that in 
deadly occupations things may be adjusted by money 
equivalents — that a thousand dollars a month, for in- 
stance, is a compensation for the loss of health and virtue. 
It is no compensation. It is a bribe ignorantly thrust in 
the face of the Almighty. It shows that even in the 
methods of great business men there is sometimes a 
puerility utterly incompatible with the nobility of their 
own nature. 

We cannot honorably separate the labor and money 
question from the life question. Six or eight, or even 
ten hours a day, are not at all injurious to health where 
air, light and cleanliness are easily obtained. 

The intense white slavery of our day in many places 
beggars all description : and it is slavery not on account 
of the hard work, but on account of the filth and slime 
and exuviae in the atmosphere of the worker. It breaks 
down not only his physical but his moral nature. Such 
men and women I hardly ever expect to see within church 
doors — I do not desire it ; their spare moments should be 
in fields and groves, and by running streams. They are 
here to live, and while the laws of labor are in such crude 
condition as to barely give them a chance to live, they 



196 LIFE SKETCHES 

are perfectly safe in attending Nature's festival at every 

opportunity. 

Well acquainted some years ago with a millionaire, I 
censured him severely for putting his main and largest 
workshop under ground where one hundred men were 
called to labor, but where horses would hardly be ex- 
pected to live. He incurred a fearful amount of enmity 
in consequence of his action. The corners and walls 
were daily blackened with tobacco and filth of all kinds. 
The employer was constantly in bad humor with his men. 
The gas burning all the air during the day left with the 
residuum pale-faced, dried-up, feverish mortals. They 
were paid from six to twenty-two dollars a week. In 
such a place, and in such conditions, where the life 
question was left out of the argument altogether, these 
men might have been paid fifty dollars a week, and yet 
that would be insufficient. Nor would a hundred dollars 
suffice. Unfortunate men ! What did they know about 
health ? The employer was their leader, and should have 
been arraigned before the country for treason in sacri- 
ficing the lives of his brethren. 

Look on the debit side one moment. Where the air is 
foul and oppressive, there is a constant thirst for stimulus. 
Fifty cents a day per capita in some large establishments 
may be considered a minimum. Then there are the 
headaches, jars and pains--family troubles and doctors' 
bills, which mount up the expenses to a large parcel — a 



THE IvABOR QUESTION 197 

great deal of mischief brought on by a foolish employer 
building a bad shop for his workmen. So you see thirty 
or forty dollars a week in such places melts away very 
rapidly. Now shift the scene a little. We will suppose 
the employer has a large, healthy, well- aired series of 
rooms, so that it would be a pleasure for ladies and gentle- 
men to pass through them. There is another considera- 
tion coming into play here. Vice is an inherent evil 
with many of our race . In such a place the drunkards 
and profligates would have little or no chance, as they 
have now. Well they would soon drop out of sight, and 
we can well spare them. Those who secured employ- 
ment would be inclined from their environment to look 
a little higher than capital — to think of the comfort they 
experienced — the blessed light, the clear air ; they would 
grow cheerful, and look very naturally for long years 
ahead of them. Suppose they were receiving fourteen 
dollars a week at the present rates of living— these men 
would say — "Our fourteen dollars is better than your 
twenty dollars or thirty dollars without any conveniences. " 
The labor and money questions would soon meet their 
proper level. 

To some extent I have seen this plan carried out. I 
have watched men month after month, year after year, 
receiving steadily their ten dollars or twelve dollars a 
week in situations, which, from their favored advantages, 
they would not exchange for thirty dollars without these 



198 LIFE SKETCHES 

compensations. I have seen these men ultimately secure 
nice holdings, — the feelings were absolutely affectionate 
between the employer and his men. And there is no 
earthly reason in this wide world why the same principle 
cannot be adopted in all our large workshops and fields 
of labor. 

True, the wages seemed small, but look at the credit 
side. Contentment and cheerfulness reign in the work- 
shop. Health and exercise give sweet sleep and appetite. 
The Friday and Saturday come round, and the physical 
frame is as strong and vigorous as at the beginning of 
the week. Why not ? 

From the demands of our social atmosphere at present, 
it is fortunate for the workingman that he has his trades 
union, but it is also fortunate for the employer that he 
has his also. The balance is thus adjusted without much 
disharmony. I leave out of sight the whole question of 
political demagogism. Every line of labor, every interest 
that seeks growth is readily looked upon by wire pullers, 
and dyed in the wool with political trickery. Bribery is 
used as a confection. And while it is lamentable that 
good men and true hold back from respect for purity , 
it is none the less true that certain elements remain as a 
winning force in the ultimate triumph over evil and dis- 
integration. 

Of course there will be wonderful advantageous strides 
made in the field of labor. The average intelligence Avill 



THE LABOR QUESTION 199 

be greater than at present. Politeness and courtesy will 
be mighty factors, dear reader, though you may perhaps 
laugh at the suggestion. Man is gradually evolving, and 
in this evolution he will be more sensitive of his own 
worth. And the give and take — if I may speak that way 
— will be tinged with the consciousness, "I know my 
business." Workers will involuntarily carry more re- 
spect in their own homes, to their general advantage, and 
a universal language, if not the English, will hasten 
the day for man's noblest triumphs, even in the fields of 
the rudest and humblest labor; and when we will no 
longer be challenged as now by these burning questions 
from the throne of Justice : — 

Why is It -women lose caste, 

And gink a city's shame, 
For sins men follow thick and fast. 

And keep in church a name? 

Why— when one takes some bread 

To feed her child from God- 
Should law drop vengeance on her head, 

Yet keep the murderer shod ? 

Why— for a stolen dime- 
Should one drink felon's gall. 

While stealing thousands is small crime, 
And millions none at all ? 

"Why license polished thieves. 

Who turn the world aghast. 
And lie for party, thick as leaves 

Borne on October's blast? 

Why keep the bribers free 

To wine and dine at ease ? 
Yet jail bribe-takers, as their fee, 

And make them drink the lees ? 



IvIFE SKETCHES 

Why should Trust's mammon crew 

Seize all we wear and eat? 
Why squeeze the smaller tradesmen out, 

And laugh at their defeat ? 

Why keep our factory throng 
In sweatshop, mine and stall 

Ill-fed and under-paid— a wrong 
That drives them to their fall ? 

And why not hang Sir Wealth 

For murders in his line ? 
O no, good sir— here's to your health ! 

Your gold makes you divine. 

How can we lift our race. 

How open paths for good. 
When perjured men leap into place. 

And live a pensioned brood? 

And Justice will he heard. 

None dare escape her eye. 
Stern goddess, when her anger wakes, 

She'll know the reason why. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

BEAUTY OF CHARACTER. 

The tendency that exists in this nation towards laud- 
ing women on their literary side, to the neglect of even 
the more famous qualities of the heart, is perhaps stronger 
than anywhere else in the world. But this cannot always 
last. In the obscurity of great souls there is often a 
heavenly grandeur; and when real solid womanhood is 
observable it will not lose its lustre on account of certain 
weaknesses in the system. Let men look to their own 
laurels; they have more clap-trap in their lives than 
women, which undoubtedly is one reason of their advance. 
The graces of the heart form woman's noblest anthology, 
and give her fitting sovereignty in the paradise of earth. 

In one of these quiet little thoroughfares of East Brook- 
lyn between Bedford avenue and the river dwelt one of 
these noble sisters of charity. Here Mrs. Mary Munro 
kept open table for her ministerial friends. "It is not 
my lot to feed the soul," she would say; "I will do some- 
thing to feed the body. " Isolated yet faithful creature ! 
How long she had carried on her labor of love I know 
not. But here was a being who could pierce the shams 
and hypocrisies of her time, and do the best she could. 
Having no children to provide for, she sought to succor 



202 UFK SKKTCHKS 

the poor-rich in the Christian church with the little 

means at her command. What a picture for the painter ! 

But the brush and the easel are wanting ; and yet I dare 

not pass such a being without limning something of her 

portrait. 

Quaint, plain and old-fashioned as the hills was good 
old Mrs. Munro. She loved everybody; and when she 
found that any of her clerical visitors, young or old, de- 
served a severe reprimand, she never failed to administer 
it ; and sometimes it fell so hot and heavy that I have 
heard some of them say it was equal to a good horse- 
whipping. But she balsamed the wounds with a charm 
of character rarenow-a-days. 

Her voice was a baritone, which on its tenor side had 
a musical softness that captivated the hearer ; but there 
were occasions when she was obliged to speak with 
authority, and as she rounded over to the bass with a 
crescendo that no one could forget who once heard it, 
the windows in the neighborhood flew open, and the 
craning of necks of aunts and chambermaids made 
things look like a holiday. 

Late one afternoon I paid a visit to the ' ' Ministers' 
Rest," as it was called. "And who do you think was 
here," said she, "but Dominie Johnson, God bless him ! 
He's a beauty ! He's a minister for you. Catholic, Pro- 
testant, Unitarian — everybody loves him. They can't 
help it. He would divide his last bite with anyone of 



BEAUTY OF CHARACTER 203 

them. What'U you have — porksteak, mutton chops, 
or eels ?" 

"Excuse me — I'm not — " 

' ' Come now, not a word ; you needn't tell me. Min- 
isters are always hungry — blowing their bellows all day 
Sunday, and half of them starved to death. I know it. 
Why, the dominie tells me he's just been at a great 
funeral — he must "celebrate" two more to-night. I wish 
all our ministers were like the dominie. O yes, they say 
they are going to have a tea-meeting up at the church ; 
but if Mrs. Munro isn't going with two or three baskets 
loaded to the brim — pork pies, jellies and cakes — a good 
many would go hungry. And they just know I'm going 
too — right well they know it. Why, bless you, we can't 
have people starving around us. Just when my husband 
gave me his money last night, I bought a pair of shoes 
for one poor woman, some steak for another, and a coat 
for a minister, and so every week there is something." 

Talk about self-denial. If you wish to observe it in its 
fullest grandeur go and see some of the poorly paid 
ministers of the Christian gospel — men of pluck, men of 
good intellectual calibre — willing for the sake of their 
Master to demean themselves in all aspects of society 
with a uniform sincerity that should rouse the heartiest 
plaudits of every honorable soul. The depth of suffering, 
the chill of privation in this rich land, left no mark upon 
their brow. 



204 IvIFB SKETCHES 

How often the hungry and distressed knocked at her 
door ! It mattered not who they were, her heart ached, 
and beneath her sullenness of temper shone the jewel of 
a soul that bore the certificate of her Master. As her 
pleasant refreshment warmed and strengthened the 
traveler, he revealed to his benefactor the secret of his 
life— perhaps his early fall, the temptations in his way. 

" And now," said Mrs. Munro, after many a pleasant 
repast, " our place is very small; here is a little money; 
it will bide you for a while. God never forsakes his 
children." It was just her way. We cannot fathom her 
happiness as she saw the bread of heaven falling into the 
mouths of the poor around her. 

"Mr. Ross, do tell me, is there ever to be an end to 
suffering ? I am worn out; I can't do much more." 

"Yes, Mrs. Munro. The path is marked out as the 
real forerunner of all true enjoyment. Hard labor, pain 
and endurance are the hammers that break away the 
shell and rind ere we can taste the sweetness within." 

It is said that as Mrs. Munro frightened and distressed 
a good many people by her loud sallies of temper, we 
should let her sleep in oblivion. But as long as these 
precious words remain in Scripture, ' ' And now abideth 
faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of 
these is charity," whether it be love or benevolence, 
she is worthy of a monument. There are a great many 
people in the church who have all the patience and 



BEAUTY OF CHARACTER 205 

sweetness of dear little babies, and they think that they 
are deserving of much extra attention because religion 
has deeded so much to them; and yet they have not 
grown to understand the sum of all religion in those 
beautiful words of James: "If a brother or sister be 
naked and destitute of daily food ; and one of you say 
unto them, Depart in peace ; be ye warmed and filled ; 
notwithstanding ye give them not those things which 
are needful for the body, what doth it profit?" Mrs. 
Munro understood this to the letter. Many a hungry 
man relished her dinners; and even if she growled a 
little, there is every probability that her scoldings were 
at times necessary. "Good square meals " are always 
cried at a high premium ; but good square manliness is 
often allowed to run at a very low discount. 

In my experiences in the ministry I have fallen wit- 
ness to some eight or ten episodes of what might be 
called causes celebres of the pulpit. But, reader, I 
have washed my hands of scandal ; and though jour- 
nalists tell us they supply it because the people are 
itching for it, I must throw back the gage out of respect 
for you. You are weary and heartworn, it may be, and 
desire the vivacities of life, and not its nightmares. 
But come along with me just this once, and see a 
picture where riches and learning hide themselves in 
the mire of soul leprosy, and cast a stain upon the tem- 
ple of Christ. 



2o6 IvIFE SKETCHES 

Years ago there came to this city of Brooklyn a plain, 
quiet man, who immediately enrolled himself as a 
worker in the Christian field. This gentleman was the 
Rev. Arthur Chester, poor but ambitious. There was 
some healthy stamina no doubt about this man, and for 
some years preceding his arrival he labored with Dr. 
Dio Lewis, embraced the tenets of his system, and 
hoped to be able to prosecute it with success as an ad- 
junct of his ministerial work. 

After a few months' busy experiences he rented the 
upper part of a store, and carried on preaching services. 
A few zealous people rallied around him — and a credit- 
able Sabbath-school was the result. 

Around the city, quietly and unostentatiously, day 
after day he traveled gathering money for a new church. 
Some treated him with disdain, not a few with scorn, 
while one or two contributed handsomely. The pros- 
pects were brightening for Mr. Chester. 

Yet it must be said that he had one great drawback, 
though subsequently it proved his armor of defence. 
His reticence was painful. People shunned him on this 
account; they questioned him, and no reply was forth- 
coming. He was isolated; an air of gloom seemed to 
hang around his person, yet Chester might be said to 
have been a happy man. 

At the same time there was a nobility about him 
worthy of the noblest emulation. He did what some 



BEAUTY OF CHARACTER 207 

thousands of men never do in their long lives. He 
challenged the verdict of a medical committee that a 
young girl horribly burned could only live a few hours. 
He placed himself in the breach, and told them that he 
could save the child. He bore insult and rebuff for his 
suggestion, and surreptitiously waited for another 
chance, when the doctors left the dying and unconscious 
child with directions for her burial. 

Antiseptic dressings were immediately applied to the 
body, and allowed to remain a number of days. The 
child revived. The most sedulous attention was con- 
stantly bestowed for months till she regained her wonted 
health. But Chester's diffidence told him to keep the 
secret in his own bosom. 

By the strangest providence I found it out. A sudden 
visit to his room one day revealed the fact. Chester 
was dressing the limb of the young child. I asked him 
what it all meant. Then he told me the whole story. 
"Look here, Chester," said I, "there's too much talk 
about you now ; but I tell you I'll let the world know 
you're doing some good work for God." 

By and by a new church arose — the Bushwick Avenue 
Congregational Church. Chester had some right to be 
satisfied. But prejudices and jealousies multiplied 
around him. Little clouds of dissent rifted in the hor- 
izon. "Though he did build the church," said some, 
"let us put him out and secure a better preacher." It 



2o8 lylFK SKETCHES 

is the old story of man's hatred to man. Little minds — 
be they king, priest or peasant — care not who sinks the 
foundation stone: they look for the temple adorning it. 
Yet Chester held out bravely: he would not give up 
the post. 

What a piece of burlesque sounded out on the air 
when the "church of the living God, the pillar and 
ground of the truth " took him in hand. They tried him 
in his own den. His counsel urged him to follow his 
natural silence, which he did to the defeat of the large 
opposition. What a hot day it was for all concerned ! 
What stinging questions fell upon his ears ; but his pro- 
voking silence fell upon the prosecution in return like 
molten metal. They went away gnashing their teeth, 
and still Chester remained. 

Then he was summoned to that shrine whence, for 
nearly forty years, the aureole of genius radiated over 
the whole earth. But the glory of Plymouth had de- 
parted. He was condemned of lying; he was charged 
with writing fraudulent epistles ; he was combated with 
intolerable misdemeanors — but he moved not his lips ; 
when up rose young Andrew Ogden, who charged them 
with unchristian malice as ministers of God, stating 
that if such bitter feeling was a type of their character, 
he had seen far more honorable conduct where it was 
hardly to be expected. 

Chicanery was resorted to, to get him out. ' ' I will 



BEAUTY OF CHARACTER 209 

take the evening service (the more crowded session), 
and let him take the morning," said an old wa^r horse of 
the pulpit. But Chester kept his weather eye open, and 
smelt carrion in the air. Yes, he had a thousand fail- 
ings, but he was a brave hero not to submit to an under- 
hand diplomacy, that might do in Dahomey, but 
certainly has no right to be forever disgracing the 
Christian pulpits of this land. 

Chester's weaknesses I understood well, and to help 
in his efforts to secure a lecture course for the public, I 
bore him cheerfully for a time on my own shoulders. 
But nature as yet did not give him the material to stand 
alone, and thus severe issues pinned him to the wall. 
The fault was but one-third his own. Inuendo should 
have no place in the heart of the guardians of the pulpit ; 
and those who took him in hand as his counsel should 
have treated him from the highest standpoint of his 
nature, and thus gradually would have drawn him out 
in the sunlight, where he would soon prove that he had 
a large human heart. 

He died just as he had lived. He kept his thought to 
himself, and told no man of the bitterness or rejoicing 
of his departure. Delirium wrapped him in its folds as 
erysipelas sank into the brain. There was some laugh- 
ter of scorn that greeted not a few ears when, as soon 
as the breath was out of the body, one of the high 
priests of the opposition wrote a word of tribute to the 



2IO LIFE SKETCHES 

press regarding the excellence and moral worth of the 

man — ^poor fellow, when it was too late to reply. 

So, reader, you may notice splendid common sense is 
rare in this world. In this man you see the portraiture 
of one who, with the capacities given him by his Crea- 
tor, was allowed to sink in the maelstrom of society 
through his hesitancy and silence. Were he qualified 
with blatant presumption, he might have wheeled in the 
circle of fashion in the pulpit and out of it. Who 
knows? Peace be to the manes of Chester! 

HENRY BERGH. 
A Moses come to help a lower race, 
We say of Bergh ; and truly he was one, 
Not from affection, but an Inward sense 
Of sacred duty. A true soldier, horn 
In times most fitting. How blasphemers stared 
When he would cool the hell fire on their tongue, 
Then win their hearty cheers right joyously! 
How lords and ladies, with o'errunning wealth, 
Who daily tortured needlessly the dumb. 
At his calm gaze would stay their cruel hand. 

Bergh's day was short, but his reforms are long. 
The mellowed tenderness that marks th' divine 
In our progression, leaves abiding press 
In all our marts of labor, where his name 
Gives nobler lustre to the human mind. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 

A GREAT theme for discussion — and one claiming some 
fragmentary notes here — is the religion of humanity. 
From my little corner in the universe it may not be the 
best vantage ground for taking a bird's eye view. Still 
a man having ears cannot deny that he hears something 
of the din around him ; and having eyes he must be in- 
deed unfortunate if he cannot see a great deal. Aye, 
there's the rub, and we cannot get away from it to save 
our lives. In that vast stream of human existence 
passing me by, what a mighty throng of keen, able 
thinkers I see engulfed in the torrent. They have 
plunged head foremost through political rings, wirepull- 
ing, horse-racing, stocks, gambling, crime, to escape the 
vital question. What can we do to elevate mankind? 
It seems a very easy thing to run into the raging cur- 
rent. But to stand up and breast its buffeting waters : 
it takes thorough men and women to do it — men and 
women of soul. A noble work indeed, for in some sense 
it takes aAvay the heterodox assumption that has crept 
into our orthodoxy that we are purely the creatures of 
our environment. This is too bad ; this belief has a ten- 
dency to stultify the dignity of our race. As I look at 



212 LIFE SKETCHES 

the world through my spectacles, I see that we are not 
so far away from the garden of Eden after all, and my 
daily habitudes prompt me to seek proofs in defence of 
the statement. 

While it may truly be said that earnest thorough 
workers never fail in gifts of prescience — an insight 
grounded on nice observation — it is a lamentable con- 
fession for our race that when the higher qualities of 
mind manifest their presence, we generally strive to 
thrust them into deep worn grooves to do what other 
minds have done. Originality is singularly rare on this 
account. Considering that the vast domain of the soul 
far overshadows the geography of our little planet, one 
may see that could we but have a proper conception of 
this tremendous purchase power, we will find a creative 
principle like an ever -fruitful tree, ever bearing new and 
more vigorous saplings as progenitors of still higher 
growths. When we speak of the Augustan age of 
Rome, and its congener of England, we refer more to 
the capacities of the prevalent language than to the 
mental storehouse — which is nothing less than a uni- 
verse. Philosophers and metaphysicians have more or 
less through the passing generations embraced this 
opinion, and nearly all their researches, doubtlessly 
through errors of data and prejudices of learning, have 
fallen alarmingly short of success. Can any cause 
be assigned for this? Now it must surely be that in 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 213 

a world garnished with such an array of furniture, some 
steps are hidden that will yet be revealed. It is impo- 
tence for us to say that mind can make no headway. 

Let us be glad that we are living in an age when the 
throb of humanity is heard louder and louder on the 
side of a divine love as a controlling force in the world 
around us, and surely we must live up to this belief to 
be worthy of our being. Dogma is going out, and truth 
is coming in. It is true that human minds are apt to 
clothe their conceptions of a Messiah in varied ways to 
meet the views of their respective communities. We 
cannot help this state of things. The fibre of our civil- 
ization springs from it. Life, like some wondrous sem- 
piternal cycle, is bearing us along through endless 
change and transition. It is a grand and noble thing to 
acknowledge it, and submit as men. But there are many 
of us endowed with great learning who will not admit 
it, who hang back, and are afraid to speak. And so we 
must launch out on the vessel of faith and hope, and do 
the best we can. The future is full of light and mean- 
ing. And this looking for truth as a light to the seeker 
is pregnant with happiness here, and a richer joy 
beyond. 

But what if our knowledge be purely relative ? Well, 
there is no discomfort — nothing discouraging in this. 
We must have faith to do our duty, and gladly leave the 
results in the hands of Him who wills that it should be so. 



214 LI^B SKETCHES 

The fact that honest, sincere men and women are re- 
markably fond of life, affords an admirable argument for 
the existence of a diviner state. Such a life is a fore- 
shadowing, an elucidation of something nobler yet to 
come. Any other view would be contrary to the whole 
texture of reason and philosophy. We cannot therefore 
run away from the argument, so palpable all through 
nature, that a Guiding Hand rules the universe, and that 
he has not made His world an illusion to deceive His 
children. No matter how far we may advance in the 
future — as in the past the humble truth seeker will still 
believe with Seneca, "It is God who inspires us with 
great ideas. Without God there is no virtue." In the 
deep vastness of his soul man sees a little of the Sacred 
Presence e'er his mantle drops to the ground. The 
mysterious essence of being will not vanish — the good, 
the beautiful, the true can never die. 

It is assuring to-day that where national religion or 
polity is dilatory in acting out its platform, the never 
failing instincts of the higher humanity will force at- 
tention, and like the ocean waves, will prove resistless. 
When we speak of the religion of humanity we come 
under the influence of a philosophy that meets the actual, 
while fundamentally based on the ideal. Man, no matter 
how ignorant or learned, will meet no stumbling-block 
here. His inner consciousness cannot lie, but his meta- 
physic he will carry sheltered in his own bosom. We 



THE RKUGION OF HUMANITY 215 

are the children of experience ; and though some of the 
keener minds maintain that experience is but one of our 
teachers, that there are other avenues of knowledge, and 
though the thought may be a profitable one to them, yet 
the concept in our era may never become popular. 
Man thinks, and so he is. The dictum is old, but ever 
new in its application. 

Sectarianism is the Sargasso sea of our civilization. 
It is not so bad in corners, where children and the 
ungrown rush to it for safety. But it has no enginery 
for civilizing the world — a machinery that providence 
and man will ere long thrust in our way. Many Yevj 
earnest thinkers maintain that it is better in spreading 
the truth to keep walking very solidly in our own rut, 
and let every one know, as they come along, that there 
we are. By and by we will see many wandering in the 
rut, but we soon recognize and know each other, 
as we cannot escape the rubbing and jostling that 
ensue. It does not so much matter what are the real 
thoughts of the travelers ; by and by as we become ac- 
quainted we will see into their defects. This polity, say 
they, will ensure a leaven, that will culminate in a large 
and abiding spirit of happiness. 

Now with all candor to my friends living in the rut, 
I cannot see that this was the intention of Jesus in his 
pilgrimage on earth. Where will you find such grandeur 
and manliness and tenderness of soul as he exhibited 



2i6 LIFE SKETCHES 

amongst the people ? Ah, yes, you say, but He could see 
through men. And will you, poor pharisee, living in the 
rut, tell me that it is not your prerogative to see through 
men ? Here is where we show our contemptible weak- 
ness — yet calling ourselves Christians, hiding in a little 
rut, where we can hold confab about our neighbor's 
physique or breeches, or what not, while hundreds of 
men around us are dying for lack of knowledge. Why, 
bless you, my little traveler, it makes my gorge rise to 
hear bishops and other great dignitaries over the earth 
telling us that the Christian Gospel for some reason can- 
not meet the needs of the people. No wonder, for just 
when we realize something of its enjoyments we rush and 
throw ourselves into the ruts where the world can't see 
us — and we dare not walk up and down our city streets 
without shutting our eyes for fear of seeing something 
we cannot notice in the rut. Here you are, my dear 
brother, capable of accomplishing a world of good, hiding 
yourself in the rut, when every noble, God-energized 
heart is wanted in the army to pull down the walls of 
partition that deprive Christianity of her birthright in 
speedily civilizing the world. 

How often there comes to the home a celestial visitor 
to make life happy ! But dissociated as such a life is 
from the mannerisms of the people, he is not under- 
stood, but considered aberrant and unnatural; and 
therefore exposed to an unnecessary ordeal of trial. 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 217 

he often sinks out of sight. But, reader, if you can take 
the time to look a little into this grand argument on 
which I have merely touched, where truth with her 
visual ray throws reflection on the foreground, you will 
find broad avenues of safety spreading out into the dis- 
tance, where nature and spirit blend in sweeter harmony 
than we are accustomed to in our narrow daily life 
where we learn something ever new about ourselves, 
something not yet known, but yet that pertains so close- 
ly to us as men and women that it would be absolutely 
infamous with our capacities to pass it unnoticed. And 
what I allude to is the richness of the spiritual, or, more 
expressively the mental nature of man. Shakespeare 
paraphrased it well, "In apprehension how like a god!" 
And yet with this great spirit of apprehension, does it 
not seem very remarkable — yea, somewhat stupid in us, 
that the brute creation, so far beneath us, and so plenti- 
ful at our doors, has never been apprehended or under- 
stood? And if not the brute creation below us, how 
much less the spiritual creation above and even associ- 
ated with us ? Now one way to grasp at the body of 
things is at first to take the more simple, and ascend 
gradually the larger steps to a wider platform. And 
that wonderful Providence that fashions us sends men 
and women to pierce into the arcana of nature ; yet after 
the experience of thousands of years we know not what 
to think of those minds when they come among us, and 



2i8 LIFE SKETCHES 

immediately gather all the paraphernalia and habitudes 
of society to stifle the original propensity, and graft our 
young visitors with our own prejudices. 

There is absolutely so much rubbish and polluted soil 
in the pathway of honest investigation, that it is neces- 
sary — not to bound and climb over it, but to clear it 
with giant force away, so that we may know how to 
grasp at the meaning of those obstructions that are for- 
ever preventing man from enjoying the fullest capacity 
of his nature in this life. Every individual of years and 
reflection is bound by the infinite laws that encircle him 
to come forward and assist in this undertaking. For the 
clearer our knowledge of the Divine in the universe, the 
happier and more contented will be the lot of our brother 
man. I cannot conceive what is the use of living, unless 
we can with our capacities go far out into the depths, 
and come back laden with new wealth, stronger and 
more vigorous, and more fitted to elevate our race in 
the great life struggle. 

There is a picture hanging in my room, clothed with 
rich associations, and as it touches one section of my 
argument, I must allude to it here. It is an excellent 
photograph of some forty-six faces, including myself. 
The young personages all around me were brought up in 
the Jewish faith; but the courageous stand that they 
have taken for the rights of man in the religion of 
humanity have won my highest admiration. I must 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 219 

associate with them. I must look in their eyes, and 
catch every word that they utter. They are well 
educated, apt in debate, and proud of their lineage. 
Proud also am I to-day of this picture. But my young 
friends can never fathom the extent of meaning that 
forces itself upon me in their presence. What a history 
of mankind I see there. All the rich past comes welling 
up in spite of myself — seership, poetry, jurisprudence, 
economics ; and as I write the Roumanian and Kishineff 
massacres are yet thrilling the world. What does it all 
mean ? You, reader, are asking the same question. But 
only in exclusive circles we care about answering it. 
We all know what it means. But the mire of bigotry 
and caste has so begrimed us that we are afraid of ex- 
pressing a thought on the matter. And yet the epigraph 
on their temple of worship is a rebuke to the civilized 
world — the religion of humanity. 

And this lovely young group beside me in the picture 
represents the people that "Christianity" will see 
maligned and scourged century after century. The He- 
brews, as a part of this religion, are called thieves and 
vagabonds — they are pelted with stones, their beards are 
plucked out on the streets, their children are jeered at 
and mocked to the shame and scandal of mankind. 
They are all to be consigned to perdition. Such is the 
fury of blind ecclesiasticism . Is this permitted under the 
aegis of Christianity ? God help the little society that I 



220 LIFE SKETCHES 

see around me as a star rising out of the ocean. The 
spirit of Jesus, the Jew, I believe, will give them his 
sweetest love and blessing. 

The Jew and the Christian agree upon the beautiful 
and lovable spirit of Jesus. But when Ecclesiasticism 
took this Child of Bethlehem, and through the centuries 
robed him with all the garniture of fable and supersti- 
tion, and consigned the Jew to persecution and degrada- 
tion, the scorn and byword of the centuries, it commit- 
ted the most damnable sin that ever blotted the page of 
history. The cancer of hate fastened on the brow of 
Dogma, and was allowed to eat its way to the injury of 
the race. The whole current of civilization was turned 
back, and the dark ages supervened. Malignity spread 
over the earth like wild fire. It was looked upon as a 
sacred ordinance to curse and maltreat the Jew. With 
such a background, Medievalism soon brought the in- 
quisition of torture with all its hellish cruelties to com- 
plete the work. In contrast, what a beautiful picture is 
that of the Oranges fighting for centuries in Holland to 
stay the pestilence! What a blessing for us to-day that 
one of them was carried over to England to protect the 
human brotherhood ! What a blessing for America and 
the world that the labors of the Cromwells and Hamp- 
dens and the illustrious Washington culminated in the 
great triumph for human rights ! 

Good, sensible liberty is in the world to-day, and will 



THE REIvIGION OF HUMANITY 221 

remain. With this grand era of light and freedom comes 
the Hebrew to fill his place in civilization so ruthlessly 
stripped from him nearly two thousand years ago. 
Study him well in the environment of education ; study 
him well in the picture; peer into his retentive mind, 
and it is the wonder of all wonders that he grasps the 
tenth part of what he does know — taking hold of the 
various languages with a facility known but to few 
peoples; and relishing a keen insight for finance and 
philosophical research that fits him as a nation-builder. 
To the progressive Jews the Messiah — M'cheach — is not 
the coming one man to save the world, but the unity the 
salvation of all. Is this not wisdom, philosophy and love ? 
Surely it is time now for us to shake hands, and be one. 
History is constantly repeating itself. When at inter- 
vals the miasma of political degradation leaves its bale- 
ful influence, the whole earth is affected. But the 
evolution of man, through science and popular educa- 
tion, is gradually lifting him to a higher pinnacle, and 
he shudders at the retrospect of his undoing. It will not 
do in this grand American nation to have the sacred in- 
stincts of home and religion any longer thrown in the 
raging waters of sectarianism and bigotry. The human 
mind is too noble for that. There is nothing now to 
prevent man reaping his highest ideal on earth. The 
religion of humanity is on its way, and as the obstacles dis- 
appear, happiness, comfort and song wiU take their place. 



222 LIFE SKETCHES 

Traveling extensively among all races of men, and 
looking into the intuitional capacities of all cults and 
peoples, I have wondered over and over again, when I 
read the story of Jesus the Jew, so clearly presented in 
the New Testament, why Christians, who are thereby 
knit to the brotherhood of the Jews, could pile such 
furious damage and malignity upon them. Does man's 
intuitional capacity and understanding count for nothing? 
If so man could have no faith but in experiential 
history. But our insight counts for a great deal ; and 
the balancing of probabilities is an act of administration 
put in our hands. The whole of Christ's system is built 
on the Golden Rule, "Whatsoever ye would." The 
Hebrew may take heart in this grand American nation. 
We will give him here every opportunity — through the 
halls of learning to educate his children for the great 
world struggle. The Jew and the Christian will be very 
glad to shake hands. For the Hebrew's great grasping 
mind will place him where we want him — to give force 
and color to a healthy political system, where both 
subornation and superstition will yield place, and the 
hell-fire dogmas, which have disgraced the earth for 
ages, will disappear. The sooner our eyes are awakened 
to this the better. Ecclesiastical dogma ever looks for 
bloodshed, while the religion of humanity — the Golden 
Rule — will not have it. 

There is much leveling required before we can realize 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 223 

that we are clearly on the stream of progress. Mono- 
poly and milionairism are being tested as they never 
were before. And a race of prophets is springing up 
telling us that the end of all things is at hand. The ele- 
ment of fear has never done much in the elevation of 
races. The great heart of the people has at least one 
chord in unity with their Founder — they intuitively 
trust their faculties, and great issues never fail to reveal 
them. Here lies the germ which promises a noble des- 
tiny for the whole human family. The people need 
every honest word of encouragement in their upward 
walk. It is good, therefore, to know that we are all 
brethren, that though we are unequally rewarded for 
our toil, yet care, anxiety, suffering compass us as 
clouds. And a closer acquaintance with this very knowl- 
edge, to-day at least, will often show us that in many 
ways "He spreads the cloud for a covering." 

In this age of pseudonym and sub rosa chivalry it 
may perhaps be considered a useless if not a daring 
thing to touch on this humanitarian trend. Whatever 
may have been the more pressing circumstances encirc- 
ling the life of Jesus of Nazareth, our civilization has 
hardly yet grasped the pith and sinew of it. For while 
idealistic in his teaching, no nation in Christendom as 
yet has taken hold of his socialistic platform, the most 
plain and simple and beautiful that has ever been placed 
before the world. And not only have the nations reject- 



224 LIFE SKETCHES 

ed it, but they have raised obstacles in the way ol those 
who have dared to preach it. It is no wonder therefore 
that a dull, heavy leaden materialism covers the nations 
as a cloud. And the one whom we have placed as the 
head of our spiritual government, Jesus, a divine social- 
ist, full of the unction of healthy communism, is looked 
up to as being so supremely high, that all, as we say, 
"we have to do is to read His sayings, but we cannot 
live up to them. We might hasten the millennium, by 
so doing. What we want to do just now is to make 
plenty of money — not to have brotherly feeling, but 
rather class feeling. It is so beautiful and charming, 
don't you see, to be aiding the poor with food and 
clothes, not to help elevate them to our plane. When 
we give a hundred, thousand, or a million dollars to help 
some people or cause, our names will be made famous 
over all the world." 

When the genius of toleration illumines the earth, we 
shall see the ideal in its best manifestation. Even yet 
but little known, certainly our pampered Christianity 
has given it no room for development. Toleration is the 
high priestess of the civic virtues. Where she is re- 
spected, the way of altruism is clear. ' ' All things what- 
soever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even 
so to them." Moses, Confucius, Jesus knew what they 
were talking about. Here is altruism plain and simple. 
Here, in one word, is the religion of humanity. 



THE RElvIGION OF HUMANITY 225 

It need not be in anything but the most hopeful at- 
titude that man should face this significant problem. 
Whither are we drifting? Medievalism gave us no com- 
fort — investigation was blocked there. And the greatest 
hope of the future lies in this very principle — inves- 
tigation. 

We dare not go back. We may look upon our school 
system, and say thankfully : God has given us faculties 
for advance in growth and virtue. The free public 
school under government protection gives us every op- 
portunity to utilize these faculties to their best extent. 
There is no room allowed here for the dwarfing of the 
mind; no room for the entrance of idle tradition and 
superstition, but a sharpening of the capacities of the 
will, of the perception, of the understanding — that we 
may not live as dumb driven cattle, but worthy of the 
exalted Being who has given us life. The picture pre- 
sented before the world the last few years is that of the 
affectionate and devoted mother over her loving child. 
She hears the threat of danger, and her whole soul is 
aglow with a righteousness of indignation which forever 
silences her antagonist. This is our attitude to-day 
before the world, and Rome and Russia and Spain may 
understand it if they will. Our educational system is 
the culmination of the best methods of all preceding 
ages, where literature, philosophy, heroism and science 
have given of their best treasures. With all this we are 



226 LIFE SKETCHES 

still improving. The growing intelligence and refine- 
ment of our people is the best argument for our schools. 
Education, with its sentinel the Public School, is pull- 
ing us one way ; and Superstition, with its trumpery of 
legends to pacify the children of toil, is pulling hard 
another way. There are those in this nation who say 
superstition will have the best of it ; that the grossness 
and animalism of man require such panaceas, that his- 
tory has proved it. Well, the United States has time 
to test the matter thoroughly, and is bound to carry her 
plan through. But whatever events may be shaping out 
new lines, let them but respect the programme of the 
rights and duties of the public school, and we may rest 
assured that matters will come up all right. Let educa- 
tors be true to themselves. Let history be presented in 
all its aspects. There should be no shirking there. 
Many are irritated that the Bible is not allowed to be 
read in the school. But let us not quarrel over this. 
Eemember that in itself a broad range of good studies 
will make man ashamed of superstition — and of all the 
evils that have ever cursed the world, and driven the 
nations to interminable bloodshed, the most diabolical is 
this demon of superstition. Give it but room to begin 
its infamy, and there will be no end to its horrors. See 
the degradation it fastens upon our race. Mother 
Goose's nursery rhymes are not half so absurd as the 
trumperies of superstition, and yet these trumperies are 



THE REIvIGION OF HUMANITY 227 

presented before adults as their meat and drink. I dare 
not mention them here, or I would be disgracing my 
theme. But why do I allude to them ? I mention these 
things just because their work is going on to-day. And 
the only remedy for this is not to be afraid of what 
fanatics or zealots may say about the dangers of the 
public school — but to educate, educate, educate. 

Now mankind is honored in the reflection that with 
the successive progress of the race, the religion of hu- 
manity will accompany it. The laws of man's inner 
nature, indubitably true, will spur him onward to the 
ideal ; while the keener minds, rising constantly above 
the horizon, will so fire and electrify the people, that 
like the filings near the magnet they will rally for their 
deliverer. As it is to-day, we are as yet somewhat hot- 
headed, our liberties are so extensive in this beautiful 
nation ; we are titillated with every little conceit forced 
on our attention ; we are losing cautiousness in the re- 
dundancy of ornament We are apt to be carried away 
by crowds, and will barely take time to say, as our pro- 
genitors did, "No thank you; I will think this matter 
over for myself." The consequence is that many are 
taking advantage of us; and we are drifting away into 
new theories, that carry us far out in the ocean of doubt 
and despair. And yet with all this it is questionable 
whether any ecclesiastical system, through its heavy 
baggage of forms and ceremonies, can ever come up to our 



228 LIFK SKETCHES 

fullest necessities. The ideal and the spiritual must be 
in the ascendant. The reason why the dogmatists and 
ritualists are bending over to catch the first lispings of 
church and state as the only hope for the future, is be- 
cause we do not seek the fullest worth of our privileges. 
They sturdily maintain that though the Christian work 
be spiritual — ritual with all the material aids, civil and 
political, must be relied upon, at whatever cost, for its 
perpetuity. It will take far-seeing statesmen to know 
how to meet this great issue. The virus of medievalism 
still hovers as a cloud over the earth. But the progres- 
sionists are in advance — they look for the fullest devel- 
opment of mind, and the prospect also looks as if they 
are going to have it for many years to come. 

To-day when philistinism is so rampant, when ideals 
are largely lost sight of in a web of thick materialism ; 
and wealth, commercialism, speculation — yes, and brib- 
ery too, are mounted on very high pedestals for worship, 
it looks ominous for the human race for many a year. 
And now, as science and education are making excellent 
progress, there is an outcry that we must narrow the 
work of the school — that people are beginning to know 
too much. This is but the cry of the church and state 
party. It will not do in the twentieth century that bars 
and chains shall be put at the doors of the mind. With 
all deference to the ability and piety of a late cardinal, 
his remark that his church, when necessary, never 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 229 

failed to spare the knife in spreading her glorious relig- 
ion, sent a thrill of horror in many homes that she may 
have in store something of this kind in the future as she 
had in the past. With the advancement of the religion 
of humanity, where socialism and positivism will be 
great factors, comes the better brotherhood of man, 
when the precious benison of liberty shall be more re- 
spected apart from sectarian wrappages ; when the pro- 
gress of this most beneficent religion will be advanced, 
as non-essentials in faith and belief will more and more 
disappear. The most subtle yet most pervasive argu- 
ment for the soul is God — the nature idea. As the ages 
pass, there will be more unity in this line, always tend- 
ing to reverence and love. The doctrine of the Trinity 
will be a matter of faith as now, but there will always 
remain a wide field for discussion here, but no friction 
as we have to-day. Honesty, purity of heart, will be the 
creed of the people, whether in church or council. And 
this will be a great blessing for the world. That Divine 
Oneness is charming to humanity. The Buddhist, Con- 
fucian, Christian and Jew will unite in one, and be 
loving children there. Yes, the day is approaching 
when we shall rejoice together as God's children — no 
Universalist, no Baptist, no Methodist, no ritualist, and 
no other creed, but the one of Unity. God is One. 

Did you ever think of the physiological process of as- 
similation, when this wonderful human microcosm is at 



230 LIFE SKETCHES 

rest ? Here is where a new creation is formed for the 
next day. If we could only see then with a suitable 
microscope into the magnificence of that di^'ine archi- 
tecture where millions upon millions of nerves, filaments 
and vesicles are ever moving in stately order under the 
most perfect generalship ! And the sweet, clear air of 
heaven is the prime motor in all this complexity. Just 
as the body is held together through the strange in- 
finitesimal operation of the fluids and solids in the for- 
mation of blood and bone, so with the mind. Millions of 
those peculiar forces that go to make this wonderful 
mind of ours are unknown, and will never here be un- 
ravelled. Let the humanist, the Jew and the Christian 
grasp hands. We can learn grand lessons from each 
other, we can give the kiss of peace and love, and when 
Nature calls us to give up life here, we can go with a 
smile upon our faces. 

We speak of the seriousness of life — the gravity of it. 
But I tell you honestly, reader, the man who cannot put 
some humor in the heart of the people while he remains 
here is working to little purpose. Why is life so hard 
that it demands this regimen ? Revivals on religious 
and ethical grounds are useful in their place ; but when 
they condemn the healthful games and popular amuse- 
ments they have little or no knowledge of the human 
heart. What crowds would sink into ennui or suicide 
without such amusements! A good large theatre, con- 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 231 

ducted under the most refined regimen of philosophy 
and truth, would not be a bad school for training min- 
isters in the higher accomplishments of rhetoric, so that 
they might learn to read the Bible with the majesty and 
passion befitting it, and thus draw multitudes to the 
church of God, Any man who is true to himself must 
have that within him that will explain and unfold his 
message. But to most of us workers in this world it is 
not so. How the hunger for gold attracts thousands to 
good paying positions : positions that they dislike — never 
can like — because their ethics find no correspondence in 
their environment. Of all those men of the past that I 
have known to fill his niche gracefully and well was 
Horace Greeley — the very acme of anomalies — his sim- 
plicity, gait, awkwardness and honesty formed the 
school ground in which Nature nursed this weak physical 
child for the terrible conflict of his future life — a life of 
sixty-two years, but which in its true relation was one 
of the longest ever lived by man — in that its last forty 
years comprehended the most passionate period of our 
nation's history. And there stood Horace Greeley, 
journalist and philosopher, calling daily for mercy, 
justice and righteousness^always pleading for the 
rights of man, condemning in the plainest manner the 
vices that were eating into the nation ; and daily receiv- 
ing the most bitter obloquy in return. 
It were to be hoped that we could arrive at the full 



232 IvIFE SKETCHES 

meaning of that marvel of Divine philosophy — the 
Sermon on the Mount. As it is to-day, we read it as if 
it were a fairy tale ; we take hold of it like some incan- 
tation, rattle it over our tongues — sleep it off, and then, 
God help us ! we go through the week studying out 
some new system of white lies, or how to make a dollar 
without working for it, or pile in quite a little through 
some fraudulent trickery that we think will never be 
found out. Don't think, brother or sister, that we mean 
it, but we do it nevertheless. Our plane of morality is 
below par — has been for a long time; and when the 
grammar and syntax are changed to suit the times, you 
cannot help it, you but go with the stream. 

But what do you think of such hypocrisy as that? Is 
it not better a thousand fold for a man to be right out as 
a man — earnest, truthful, honest, even if in his impulse 
he may say a bad word, or take an extra glass of sherry 
to brace up ? This infernal hypocrisy ! What do you 
think of it, prohibitionist ? And what in the long run is 
to remain as the most valuable of all our mental equip- 
ment? Honesty — plain honesty. Ah, my brother and 
sister, you can dress yourselves as richly as you please, 
gather all the enticements and adornments of fashion; 
all the styles and lingeries of the market — yet, lacking 
honesty, the poor, barefooted, honest boothblack is a 
more beautiful sight than you are. That is where society 
is lacking to-day. The higher that men and women step 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 233 

up the ladder of wealth and empty appearance they drift 
farther from honesty. How often I censured Walt 
Whitman before I understood him for what I considered 
his irrelevance and coarseness. But when I found that 
he brought out the very savagery of the human cesspool 
to mold mirrors and kaleidoscopes for his work in the 
garden of the gods, he looked to me as one of the most 
wonderful of men — a man that has the rare power of 
concealing himself from all but the chosen few. 

The calling of a great ecumenical council and peace 
congress, to be held in New York, and to be the greatest 
the world has yet seen, will be in order before many 
years. The absolutists will keep back, of course; but 
Christians, Buddhists, Jews and Mahometans will arrange 
on a conference of devout scholars to sift the religious 
books of aU nations, and purge off these bloodthirsty 
passages that stimulate hate and defiance. There are 
Mahometans just as eager as we are for a reign of peace 
and love. When their children are brought up under 
the doctrines of the revised books, we will not have the 
spectacle — so common every few years — of Turkish mas- 
sacres. The Turk is as good as any other man when he 
has the example and the precept. This is the voice of 
the religion of humanity. Perhaps it is all the better in 
our apprenticeship here that there are found differences 
in faith and kind. According to our present ethical 
range, the Dowieites, Holy Ghosters, Eddyites and others 



234 lylFB SKETCHES 

will force themselves to the front ; but with the intel- 
ligence born of an unfettered education the religion of 
humanity will make steady headway ; and Justice will 
not fail in looking to it for protection as the belief truest 
to nature. 

And in our beloved nation there is a hopeful trend. 
While the teachings of Jesus for the last seventeen 
hundred years have been misinterpreted by the world — 
we having adopted the side of blood and conquest, we 
cannot turn back now. The jealousy of nations is raised 
to the highest pitch, and the green-eyed monster is the 
same with nations as with individuals. For a land of 
peace and prosperity we wish America to be a picture 
before the world. And to do this we must have our 
cities and harbors well fortified, dynamite scattered in 
all directions, and submarine war vessels flying along 
like fishes. We must be strong enough to say to the 
world, hands off ! We have only one ally in language. 
Great Britain, but Germany and France are coming 
nobly forward in the great camping ground of truth to 
be one with ourselves. We will at least leave one good 
example to those who come after us, and that is ' 'Liberty 
over all the land, and to the inhabitants thereof." The 
American need not be afraid — he is doing his duty in one 
way, if not another. He is not adding to the population . 
The Italians, Spanish and Hungarians are doing this for 
him. This is the sacred part of their religion. So, 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 235 

should Americanism become a dead letter, and church 
and state be again in war for supremacy, — the re- 
sult will ripen into a fuller manifestation of the religion 
of humanity. 

Do not for a moment imagine, kind reader, that we 
can ever know the substance of things here — things 
tangible even. The empiric state of learning ever keeps 
us on the borders of uncertainty. Endeavor is so con- 
stantly surrounded by a nebula of unverifiable theory 
that ages pass when man goes back to the original start- 
ing point. And particularly in the domain of meta- 
physics is this apparent. When any one is asked for a 
thorough definite solution of the essence of mind or mat- 
ter, he invariably waives the question, and he will do it 
in the future as in the past. You may do a great many 
things with the forces of nature, explain their relation 
and corelation, theorize about their atomic secrets, weigh 
them even in the balance. But the moment you de- 
sire to go further, and seek for that essential something 
that makes them what they are, your labored rationale 
tumbles to the ground, and you shrink back ashamed at 
your presumption. You find that after all your years of 
toil the object of your investigation, as through some in- 
finite kaleidoscope, completely dazzles you with its com- 
plexity and riches. All our solutions but draw us nearer 
to the Infinite, and we put our finger on our lips. 

There is one point I have not touched upon. The 



236 LIFE SKETCHES 

religion of humanity will meet its highest manifestation 
when man also awakens to the worth of his physical 
being. His horse, his dog and his cow have received his 
highest attention, and worth and wealth have followed 
his endeavors. But he has altogether forgotten to attend 
to this noble work for himself ; and the consequence all 
along has been that monstrosities and idiots have been 
filling the lands. Well might the gods laugh at the im- 
becility of the human race deifying the cat and the owl, 
while degrading themselves. But things will take a 
pleasant change before many years, and prenatalism, as 
one of the highest objects of study in the domain of social 
dynamics, will be widely acknowledged. What a noble 
race of beings will then fill the earth, and Humanity re- 
alize its highest ideal ! 



INDEX. 

PAGE 

A Kempis, - - - - 50 

Abbott, Dr. Lyman, - - 150 

Accident, a serious, - - - 19 

Addison, - - - 67, 98 

Adulterations in food, _ - _ 181 

Advancement with transition, - - 7 

Agreement of Scripture with Nature, - - I33 

Albany. N. Y., - - - 84 

Analogies of Nature, „ - _ 133 

Anderson, Rev. Dr. Duncan, - - 151 

An experience, _ _ . 166 

An uncommonly strange medicine, - 157 

Aristocracy of mind, _ _ _ 135 

Arnold, _ . - 85 

Ascending stairs, - - - 114 

Aspects of marriage, - - 174 

Asthma, relieving, _ _ _ 122 

Audubon, - - - 65 

Augustan age of Rome, - - , - 212 

" Auld lang syne," - - - 158 

Balsaming hot-tempered wounds, - 201 

Bans, publishing marriage, - - 173 

Barriers in way of human progress, - 135 

Batavia, N. Y., - - - 90 

Beauty of literary style, - - 104 

Beck, Amy, . _ _ 144 

Beecher, Dr. Edward, - - 146 

" Henry Ward, - - 55, 75, 78 

Behrends, Rev. Dr., - - 150 

Ben Jonson. - - - 71 

Beneficence in Nature, - - 54 

Bennett, Jas. Gordon, - . - 143 

Bergh, Henry, _ _ _ 210 

Berkeley, - - - 45, 51 

Bird Songs, _ _ _ 106 



238 INDEX 

Blackman, Mrs. George, - - . 163 

Book of human life, - - - 76 

Branch's " Alligator," - - 143 

Bremner, Mrs. Daniel, - - . 163 

Broken arm, - - - 116 

Brooks, Erastus, - - • 143 

" Hon. James, - - 143 

Brougham, Lord, - - - 65 

Bryant, Wm. Cullen, - - 115 

Buffalo, N. Y., - - - 90, 95 

Bunyan, _ _ . 50 

Burns, Robert, - - - 107 

Byron, Lord, _ . . 60 

Carlyle, Thomas, - - - 22, 126 

Carr, Rev. Thomas, - - 94 

Carter Bros. , . - - 139 

Castle Garden, - - - 24 

Causes celebres of the pulpit, - - 205 

Challenging a medical verdict, - - 206 

Chapin, Rev. Dr., - - - 141 

Chase after truth, - . - 125 

Cheerfulness in the search for truth, - - 5o 

Chester, Rev. Arthur, - - 206 

Chillingworth, - - - 50 

Christian, type of a, - - 92 

Christians in Buffalo, - - - 93 

Church and State, - - - 228 

Church Lothario, - - - 68 

Church tea-meeting, the, - . - - 203 

Citizen of the world, - - 130 

Cleveland, ex-president, - - - 92 

Clyde River, Lyons. N. Y,, - - 88 

Cold air, advantages of, - - - 13, 108 

Cold Spring, N. Y., - - 79 

Common sense — its rarity, - - 210 

Communion with Nature, - - 155 

Compensatory law of special providences, - 28 

Consumption, disease of, - - 180 

Concord of the Ages, . _ - 146 

Conflict of the Ages, - - 146 



INDEX 239 

Conkling, Roscoe, - - - 84 

Conquest, N. Y., - - - 88 

Consistency of Nature with revelation, - - 57 

Constellation Cygnus, - - 86 

Cook, John, - _ _ 143 

Cooped-up, unhealthy rooms, - - 72 

Corfu, N. Y. , - - - 90 

Cowper, poet, - - - 70 

Creed a sentry, . _ . 50 

Cuyler, Rev. Dr., - _ _ 145 

Dancing halls and billiard tables, -. 164 

Dante, - - - .65 

Darrach, Rev. Wm., - - 92 

David Looking on Himself, - - 138 

Dawson, Sir William, - - 43 

Delirium of drunkenness, - - - 183 

DeQuincey, - _ . g8 

Des Cartes, - - - 61, 65, 138 

Devil of blasphemy, - - 177 

Devils of the ink, - - - 184 

Dime, the solitary, - - - 87 

Diseases of the idle rich, - - -65 

Distemper of divorce, - - 175 

Divine Malignity, - - - 106 

Dogma making way for truth, - - 213 

Donnelson, - - - - 138 

Dorcas at her post, - - 203 

Doubt the lot of mankind, - - 131 

Dougall, John, Montreal, - - 46 

Draught, sitting in a, - - - 122 

Dryden, - - - - 21, loi 

" Duncan Gray cam' here to woo," - - 157 

Dundrearies of business, - - 63 

Durer, Albert, - - - 47 

Duryea, Rev. Dr., - - - 82 

Dwarfing of the mind, - ^ 225 

Edwards, Jonathan, - - 184 

Elder Wheat. ... 88 

Elgin, Lord, - - - 38 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, - - 23, 99, 115 



240 



INDEX 



England and the United States, 

English Encyclopedia, 

Ethica, 

Eulogy on Beecher, 

Evans, John, printer, 

Experience our greatest teacher. 

Faith and reason, 
Fanny Fern, 
Fireflies in the marsh, 
Ferres, Jas. Moir, 
Fetich in Theology, 
Fireworks, a night of, 
Fitts, Daniel B., 
Flashes of Wit and Humor, 
Flying like an Apollo, 
Foster Meadows, L. I., 
Friendships of the great, 
Fulton, Dr. Justin D., 

Geddes, Jennie, 

Genesee, 

Generating animal heat, 

Genius in infancy not respected, 

Gladstone, Wm. E., 

Glory and Shame of America, 

Gold, the race after, 

Golden idolaters, 

Gordon, William, 

Gorgeous sunsets, 

Gough, John B., 

Greeley, Horace, 

Grenville, Ont. , 

Habitudes of Nature, 
Hackensack River, - 
Hageman, Rev. Miller, 
Hall, Dr. Charles, - 
Halton, John A., 
Hamburg Canal, 

Hammers of hard labor and pain, 
Hanna, John, M. D., 



83 

102 

130 

75 

95 

215 

55 

^39 

, 61 

38 

104 

61 

153 

136 

S8 

59 

71 

152 

159 

89 

119 

35 

77 

91 

181 

65 

45 

60 

69, 140 

20, 142,231 

43, "2 

9 
60 
106 
147 
152 
91, 96 
204 
152 



INDEX 241 

Hay fever, - - - - 71 

Health prescription, - - 109 

Hedging for true character, - - 62 

Hell, an argument, - - 31 

Heroes of the hearth, - - - 88 

Hesperides of health, - - 59 

Hill, Hon. David B., - - - 80 

Hincks, Hon. Francis, - - 37 

Hint for amateur lecturers, - - 89 

History of Freemasonry, - - 152 

History of Long Island, - - 152 

Hobbes, - - 67 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, - - - 45 

Honesty, riches of, - - - 64 

Horace, - . - _ 118 

Horrors of tenement houses, - - 179 

Humanity looking for the Divine, - - 129 

Humor the salt of life, - - 27 

Hunting for errors, - - . loi 

Hymns of Robert Burns, - - 164 

Ideals of peoples, - - - 52 

Idiosyncrasies of Nature, - - 35 

Illustrated Family Bible, - - 108 

Independence of true genius, - - 70 

Inorganic forces as teachers, - - 132 

Insane asylums, . - . 181 

Instincts of the higher humanity, - 214 

Intellectual Life, - - - 136 

Intuitions, worth of the, - - - 76 

Irving, Washington, - - 99 

Isolation in walking, - - - no 

*' of strong minds, - - 132 

Italian count, ... 139 

Jeffrey, Dr. Reuben, - - - 147 

Jeffrey, Lord, . _ - 22 

Jersey City, N. J., - - - 60 

'* flats, mosquitoes and lightning, - 60 

John Knox and John Wesley, - - 86, 89 

Johnson, Samuel, _ - . 65 

Johnson, Dominie, . _ . 202 



242 



INDEX 



Jones, Edouard, 

Kant, Immanuel, 
Key of symbolism, 
Kingcraft in Scotland, 

Laborer, the dying, 

Ladies requesting a lecture, 

Lanigan, a famous wit. 

Lecture course, 

" Leaves of Grass," 

Legal protection, 

Leibnitz, 

Lewis, Dr. Dio, 

Liberty, 

Life a great battlefield, 

*' of St. Andrew, 

'• of Wm. Cobbett, 

" shortness of, 

" the temple of, - 
Lind, Jenny, 
Literary styles, 
Locke's Essay, 
Logan, Sir William, 
Long-faced, styptic religion. 
Looking for a fight, 
Love of life, an argument 
Love of the wherewithal, 
Love of independence, 
Lovell, John, printer, 
Lovely, John, 

MacDonald, Sir John A., 

MacDonald, Flora, 

Macmillan, Messrs., 

Maitland, Robert, Passaic, 

Makers of history, 

Making money in marriages, 

Malone, Dr. Sylvester, 

Man as a student, 

Man's life a vessel 

Man's real nature progressive 



139 

51 

66 

152 

25 
93 
34 
75 
139 
103 

51 
206 
106 

66 
152 
136 

51 
126 

25 
98 

19 

44 

109 

19 

55 
91 
98 

44 
158 

47 
163 

lOI 

163 

T25 
172 
152 
128 
63 

54 



INDEX 



243 



March, Prof. F. A., 

Mathieson, Rev. Dr., 

Max Muller, 

McCosh, Rev. Dr., - 

McGee, Hon. D'Arcy, 

McGlynn, Dr. Edward, 

Meade's Hall, Syracuse,. 

Memorable walk, year 1891, 

Miller, Dr. John, 

Milton, 

Mind, characteristics of, 

Mivart, George, 

Monotheism, 

Moral courage. 

Moral cowardice. 

Moral quality, 

Morea, 

Morrison, Duncan, teacher, 

Mowatt, Hebrew professor, 

Munro, Mrs. Mary, 

Nature work of continued creation, 
Newark, N. J., 
N. Y., 
Newburgh, N. Y., 
New England States, 
New Hartford, 
Newton, Sir Isaac, 
New York Mills, 

O'Bierne, Rev. James, 

Objective points of vision. 

Observation, its wealth in research. 

Oersted, 

Ogden, Andrew, 

Old Tom, sherry, etc., 

Orpheus with his lute, 

Oxford Dictionary, - 

Palmerston, Lord, 
Pantheism, 
Paradise of earth. 



loi 
40 
70 

149 

38 
152 

87 

117 

103 

65, 67, 96, 100, lOI 

49 
70 

131 
no 

93 
51 
60 
48 
49 
201 

133 
77 
88 
78 

161 
86 

51 
86 

151 
134 
53 
132 
208 
120 
160 

lOI 

33 
129 

72 



244 INDKX 

Parker, Theodore, - - . 13^ 

Parton, Jas., - - - I39 

Passaic, N. J., - - - 60 

Paterson, N. J., - - - 60 

Patience in investigation, - - 53 

Patterson, John, - - - 136 

Paul, St., . - . 50 

Pictures, God in, - - - 131 

Plato, - - - 51,63 

Pleasant prospects of long walk, - - 87 

Poets, the, - - - 21 

Politics a slippery science, - - 82 

Poor-rich, the, - - 201 

Porter, Dr. Elbert, _ - _ 14^ 

Pratt, J. W., - - - 137 

Prefiguration, _ _ _ 133 

Prejudices of life, - - - 77 

Pretty faces of children, - - 62 

Purchase power of the lungs, - - 43 

" " " mind, - - 212 

Putney, Samuel, jr., - - 151 

Queen Elizabeth, - - - 71 

Quinn, Denis, _ _ . 137 

Quotations, - - - 150 

Relativity of knowledge, - - 213 

Residence in Buffalo, - - - 91 

Revelations of Maria Monk, - - 139 

Reverence in investigation, - - 52 

Robertson, Lawrence, - - 137 

Robison, Professor, - - - 20 

Rochester, N. Y., - - - 87, 88 

Rome, N. Y., - - - 86 

Ross, Dr. John D., - - - 106 

Ross, Dr. Peter, - - - 152 

Rules for walking and breathing, - - 120 

Running in a blizzard , - - - 79 

Running in the ruts, - - - 55 

Rushing on to ruin, > - . 201 

Sacrifice to Moloch, - - - 180 



INDEX 245 

Sanitary advantages of song, - - 163 

Satan's disgust, - - - 97 

Sawyer, Rev. Dr., - - _ 86 

Scene at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., - - 178 

Schopenhauer, - .- - 155 

Scotch mist, - - - - 156 

Scotland and the Scots, - - 153 

Scotsman, the, . _ _ 1^7 

Scott, Robert, Brooklyn, - - 163 

Scottish song, . - _ 162 

Sectarianism, its greatest weakness, - 215 

Secular enjoyments necessary, - - 156 

Sedgwick, Prof., - _ _ 107 

Selden and his Table Talk, - - - 136 

Self-denial of Christian workers, - - 203 

Seman, Philip L., - - - I53 

Seneca, - - - 214 

Shakespeare Portrayed by Himself, - - 136 

Shenandoah, Penn., - - - 159 

Shooting ducks, _ - _ m 

Silence, the power of, - - 208 

Singing good for breathing, - - 123 

Sinking home, the, _ _ _ i^g 

Sixth and seventh senses, - - ■ 127 

Slippery as an Albany politician, - - 82 

Smith & MacDougall, - - 19 

Smith, Rev. A., - - - 90 

Smith, Rev. J. Hyatt, - - 146 

Smollett, - - - - 69 

Socrates, - - - 65, 112 

Somersaults of fashion, - - - 135 

Somerville, Alexander, - - 33 

Sovereigns Hall, Utica, - - - 86 

Sons of God, - - - I43 

Spinoza, _ - - - 139 

Springfield, L. I., - - - 59 

Stevens, Dr. Abel, - - - 142 

Stopping in a jiffy, - - - 62 

Storrs, Dr. Richard, - - - 148 

Struggle of mind, - - - 66 



246 INDEX 

Studies, - - - - i6 

Swift and Rabelais, - - - 34 

Swilled milk, - - . 182 

Swinton, John, - - _ 20 

Sympathy a Godlike trend, - - 134 

Tact in literature, ... 105 

Talmage, Rev. Dr., - - 149 

Taylor, Bayard, . _ _ 13^ 

The human book, - - - 58 

The " Minister's Rest," - - - 202 

The Religious Element in American politics, 87 

Thinking stimulated in a gale, - - 112 

Ticket torn to pieces. - - - 78 

Tilden, Samuel J., - - - 82 

Tomkins, James, - - - 84 

Tyng, Rev. Dr. - - - 148 

Ullman, Rev. Mr., - - - 78 

Unmated couple, the, - - 171 

Uses of symbol and analogy, - - 134 

Utica, N. Y., - - - 85 

Value of life, - - - 73 

Value of mental independence, - - 154 

Vampire of anxiety, - - - 83 

Victim of dementia, - - 59 

Visit to the factories, _ - . 161 

Wales, Prince of, - - - 41 

Walk, the long, - - - 119 

Walking beneficial for the old, - - 123 

Walking in ruts, . _ _ 215 

Wappinger Falls, N. Y., - - 79 

Waters, Robert, - - - 136 

Watson, Robert, - - - I37 

Weedsport, N. Y., - - - 88 

Well-rounded minds, - - 63 

Wesley, John, - - - 50 

White, Rev. J. J., - - - 151 

White, Richard Grant, - - - 142 

Wilton, William, . - - 138 

Whitman, Walt, - - - 139. 233 



INDEX 



247 



Williamson, George, 

Woman's noblest anthology, 

Woman's rights, 

Woman's tribute to Christianity, 

World a school, 

World ecumenical council, 

Worry-bugs, 

Worth of the intuitions. 

Yonkers, N. Y., 
Young, George, 



151 
201 
176 

93 
18 

233 
124 

57 

77 
137 



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